Update:
Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said late last week that the US must treat China’s 2027 annexation of Taiwan as a “realistic potential.”
It follows Gen. Anthony J. Cotton’s statement at an annual defense conference that Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s goal to invade Taiwan in 2027 has driven the CCP’s investment “in land, sea, and air based nuclear delivery platforms, and infrastructure necessary to support a major buildup of their nuclear forces.”
In recent weeks, allegations of increased PLA purges have prompted doubts about how the CCP’s internal power struggle may affect Taiwan policy.
Perry told The Epoch Times that capturing Taiwan by 2027 has always been the CCP’s goal and that the world “needs to take that seriously” rather than assuming it won’t.
“We must proceed in everything we do and say, in every decision we make, as though that’s plausible,” he said.
Perry, a retired Army brigadier general and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence member, was one of 28 congressmen who supported a February resolution to improve US-Taiwan relations.
“We ought to signal very loudly that we do not accept China’s narrative and China’s coercion to try and get—slowly—the rest of the world to just accept that China is going to take over Taiwan,” he said, adding that the US should “publicly” recognize “the diplomatic efforts and the sovereignty of
Between 1912 to 1949, mainland China was known as the Republic of China, until the Kuomintang lost the civil war to the CCP and fled to Taiwan.
The CCP wants to “unify” Taiwan peacefully or militarily. The dictatorship has hampered Taiwan’s diplomatic contacts and international participation. It maintains that the communist rule is the only legal government on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and demands that the world obey its “One China” ideology.
Washington has an alternate “One China” strategy that acknowledges but does not support the CCP.
Since Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te took office this year, the Chinese authorities has aggressively criticized Taiwan separatists and threatened to execute “diehard” supporters.
Military and patrol actions in the Taiwan Strait have increased in recent years, dispatching PLA or coast guard aircraft and ships practically everyday.
In 2023, then-CIA Director William Burns claimed U.S. information to say Xi had instructed the PLA to invade Taiwan by 2027.
In an email conversation with The Epoch Times, retired U.S. Army Reserve Colonel Lawrence Sellin claimed Beijing had “pursued a ‘salami-slice strategy’ using a series of many small actions to produce a much larger result.”
The dictatorship is reluctant to strike or blockade because it “would cause an immediate strong reaction from the United States and regional powers opposed to China’s unlawful expansionism, possibly provoking a major war,” he said, “but that could change.”
Yuan Hongbing, a former law professor at Peking University with CCP links, said party leaders were encouraged to “solve the Taiwan issue by 2027” in a paper by top PLA specialists last year.
The paper called the aim a “political guarantee” for the CCP’s 21st National Congress in 2027, suggesting CCP elites had staked their legitimacy on absorbing the self-ruled island, Yuan said.
The disappearance of Gen. He Weidong, the PLA’s third-in-command and second-ranked vice chairman of the CCP’s Central Military Commission, has raised questions about whether Xi is losing power and whether a coup would speed or hinder the CCP’s intention to invade Taiwan.
On how the United States should react, Perry said anything that hampers the CCP’s oppression of the Chinese people and slows the spread of communism around the world is “a good thing,” but the United States can’t “just sit back and hope that that occurs organically.”
A group of US legislators wants new norms and guidelines for dealing with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) central bank’s digital yuan, Moscow’s top trading partner and closet strategic partner, as Russia is battered by a slew of sanctions from around the world.
According to a March 10 news release from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), one of the bill’s sponsors, “if left uncontrolled, technologies like China’s Digital Yuan could empower Russia to dodge global sanctions on networks like SWIFT and enable the CCP to further spy and threaten their populace.”
The bill [S.3784] is intended at controlling US policies relating to China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) in response to fears that it could collect personal data and aid Russia in circumventing sanctions. It has the support of eight Republican lawmakers.
If the bill is passed, the Secretary of Commerce will submit a report on the blockchain-based service network as well as trade enforcement activities involving digital yuan, and the Department of State will issue a warning about the digital currency.
The bill also mandates that the Office of Management and Budget set regulations for the usage and transfer of digital yuan, as well as that foreign governments receiving aid through the Foreign Military Financing Program disclose if they use CBDC.
Since 2020, China has been testing its digital currency, formally known as e-CNY, in Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities. The e-CNY was also offered to foreign athletes at the Olympic venues.
While no official launch date has been set, politicians and experts in the United States have expressed concern that the communist regime may utilize the state-controlled digital currency to undermine the dollar’s dominance and acquire personal data from users.
The bill’s other co-sponsor, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), said in a statement, “The Chinese Communist Party is continuing its drive to control every part of life through their digital yuan, and this has major privacy issues for anyone using it.”
“The American people are entitled to know how China’s government plans to utilize this digital currency to spy on and manipulate its citizens, as well as everyone who uses it.”
In addition, senior CCP officials viewed China’s digital currency effort as a bulwark against US financial and political control in the international payments system known as SWIFT, according to a 2021 research by the Center for a New American Security.
Concerns have been made that the CCP will use its e-CNY and Cross-border Interbank Payment System to circumvent recent Western sanctions on Russia, including its removal from SWIFT.
Analysts speculate, however, that Beijing may be hesitant to appear to be siding with Russia in the wake of worldwide condemnation of its invasion of Ukraine.
Unlike the West, China’s rulers has so far declined to call Moscow’s actions an invasion or to condemn the attack.
At a news conference following the annual gathering of China’s rubber-stamp legislature in Beijing on March 11, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang refrained from condemning Russia’s aggression on Ukraine, instead repeating the regime’s earlier criticism of Western sanctions.
Li dodged a question on whether China would provide additional financial and economic assistance to Russia in the face of sanctions.
We can expect a falling empire like the CCP to attempt to drag everyone down with them, because that’s what cowards do. If they don’t find the technological autonomy they’re looking for, and fast, they’ll be knocking down Taiwan’s back door demanding cooperation. These are the details required to have a firm grasp on the reality and restraints foreign nations must impose on each other to protect their own self interest. China however, has no interest in conducting any of it’s business without violating national security or provoking foreign super powers and they must be put in check. 1 Peter 4:12-14 Says this: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”
This is only the beginning of a tsunami of cyber infrastructure being prodded at as people inevitably test their skills behind a computer in light of global political unrest. The truth is, cyber security is a cat and mouse game. Vulnerabilities are inherent in these complex systems because they’re built for the end user, and not to prevent people from snooping around in the back end. Most of the cyber infrastructure currently in place could be considered practically naked in terms of cyber security because there are so many ways to exploit data. Why else would China go crazy for data like the leprechaun hoarding lucky charms in the old commercials? It’s valuable and its available; There’s a market for it, and you’re the product. Our complex way of life as a civilization has inadvertently created multiple back doors to be exploited by people more tech savvy than the rest of us. Technology related vulnerabilities can be expected to be magnified and exploited in the coming years for various reasons; political or criminally motivated.
No one man can make sense of this elaborate illusion cast over the common man of society, but collectively we can point out each limitation forced upon us and bring it forward as an injustice to the public. In Matthew 10:34 Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” We’re meant to go down preaching the gospel and guiding others to salvation. This could be considered the bravest task a man or woman of faith could undertake, but make no mistake it will bear fruit in the kingdom of heaven. Stay inquisitive in the word of God, and the world around you.
