U.S. Pacific Air Forces Commander Tells Troops To Be Ready for War on China

Nov. 7, 2020 (EIRNS)—In yet another example of the poisonous effect of the geopolitical doctrine embedded in the 2017 National Security Strategy and the 2018 National Defense Strategy documents, the leaders of U.S. Pacific Air Forces are telling their troops they must be ready for war against China. Beijing, with its “maligned and coercive activity that’s frequently not in accordance with international law,” is the greatest challenge facing the region, PACAF commander Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach told his troops in Japan during a Facebook Live video call yesterday. “We’ve got to challenge and compete with them in accordance with the national (defense) strategy, but we also have to be ready in the event we get called to go fight tonight,” he said, reported Stars & Stripes.

China’s “disturbing” behavior, Wilsbach continued, includes its “crackdown on the democratic process” in Hong Kong that sparked unrest last year, its recent border clashes with India and its militarization and island-building in the South China Sea. “[They are] making new islands in the South China Sea and saying that it’s always been that way and it’s Chinese territory—and it hasn’t,” Wilsbach said. “That’s revisionist history.”

Wilsbach criticized China for “threatening action” when U.S. military ships and aircraft approach “not even close to the 12-mile territory of China,” referring to the distance from coastlines that make up a nation’s territorial waters under international maritime law. “All that maligned activity is causing a lot of consternation with us and with our allies and partners in the region because we ... are looking for a free and open Indo-Pacific, which includes open commerce, open seas [and] open skies to be used in accordance with international law,” Wilsbach said.