China's Defense Minister threatens to take Taiwan by force...war ain't coming but the drums are beating...

Via Financial Times.

 When General Wei Fenghe, China’s defence minister, took to the stage at the Xiangshan security forum organised by the People’s Liberation Army in Beijing last week, he assured delegations from 64 countries that China’s military “has always been a staunch defender of world peace”.

Yet in the same breath he issued a sharp warning: “Taiwan is China’s core interest,” Gen Wei said. “On these issues, it’s extremely dangerous to challenge China’s bottom line repeatedly. If anyone tries to separate Taiwan from China, China’s military will take action at all costs.”

Although Taiwan — claimed by Beijing but clinging to its independence with the help of a US commitment to aid its defence — has been a sore point between China and the US for decades, Gen Wei’s threatening tone reflected a new level of tension in military relations between the two countries.

Story here. 

via SCMP.com

David Helvey, US principal deputy assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific security affairs, told a conference in Annapolis, Maryland on Monday that the self-ruled island “must have resources to modernise its military and provide the critical materiel, manning and training needed to deter, or if necessary defeat, a cross-strait invasion”.

Helvey said “Taiwan’s current efforts will falter” unless its defence budgets keep growing, according to a transcript of his remarks released by the US-Taiwan Defence Industry Conference on Tuesday.

The official also accused China of attempting to “erode Taiwan’s diplomatic space in the international arena while increasing the frequency and scale of [People’s Liberation Army] activity within and beyond the First Island Chain”.

Story here.

via SCMP.com

The United States will not stand by to allow any non-peaceful attempt to unilaterally alter the status quo of Taiwan, a senior US diplomat has said in an apparent warning against Beijing’s threats to retake the self-ruled island, by force if necessary.

Washington would also do all it could to help Taiwan rejoin some international organisations such as Interpol, the official said, despite strong protests from Beijing, which considers Taiwan a wayward province.

In his debut press conference on the island on Wednesday, Brent Christensen, the new director of the US de facto embassy, the American Institute in Taiwan, signalled stronger US support for the island in the face of persistent pressure from Beijing against Taipei.

“I am here to tell you that US policy towards Taiwan has not changed,” Christensen said.

Story here. 

via Stripes.com

The Army has reactivated a brigade to oversee missile-defense units on mainland Japan, Okinawa and Guam.

The 38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade was reactivated in a brief ceremony Wednesday at Camp Zama, headquarters of U.S. Army Japan in Kanagawa prefecture near Tokyo.

The brigade, based at Sagami General Depot, about 25 miles west of the Japanese capital, will oversee the 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Regiment at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, as well as the 10th and 14th Missile Defense Batteries on mainland Japan and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery on Guam.

The unit, which will include about 115 personnel at full strength, is purely a headquarters unit, said U.S. Army Japan spokesman Kevin Krejcarek.

Story here. 

What do all those stories add up to?  Co-existence is a lie.  The Chinese and American empires are on a collision course.  Both sides will try and seek advantage and will attempt to "not fire first" but make no mistake about it.

This will be labeled by historians as the Pre-War Era...