Australian General Assesses Conflict with China a ‘High Likelihood’

May 4, 2021 (EIRNS)—The Sydney Morning Herald reports on a speech by Australian Maj. Gen. Adam Findlay to dozens of military officials, in which he asserted that China has game-planned a way of avoiding Western red lines to wage a more subtle form of warfare, but that this could spillover into warfare. Findlay said that for the first time since World War II, Australia was facing a “peer enemy”: China.

“China said, let’s be smarter. Let’s play just below the threshold, before it goes to war,” Findlay explained, stating that China was focusing on “political warfare” to “achiev[e] strategic effects without going kinetic.” Examples given by the newspaper are the $20 billion in tariffs that China imposed on Australian goods, and a wave of cyberattacks on government and infrastructure networks in Australia.

To “stop war from breaking out,” Findlay said that Australia must itself fight in the “gray zone” to “put the adversary at a disadvantage.”