Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) warned this week that the threat of a surprise attack in the Pacific from Communist China was much higher than people realize because they have managed to lull the world to sleep with their repeated military exercises.
Cotton made the remarks during an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt this week while talking about his new book “Seven Things You Can’t Say About China.”
“China is justly unpopular with the vast majority of Americans, and most of those Americans are very worried about China,” Cotton said. “But if anything, it’s actually much worse. The threat is pervasive. It’s present today. It’s not remote in the future, and it is something that affects your everyday life in America, not just, you know, something that might affect our strategic position in the world years from now.”
Cotton said that one of the greatest threats China poses to the world is with its “gray zone” activities, a term that refers to coercive actions that are shy of armed conflict, but go further than normal diplomatic, economic, and other activities, and are used to advance a nation’s interests.
He was specifically asked about the numerous incursions into Taiwanese waters and airspace by the Chinese military and whether China may one day pull the trigger and launch a surprise attack on Taiwan.
“I don’t think we can ever take that for granted. I know that Taiwan, and, for that matter, Japan does not either,” Cotton said. “That’s why the increasing number of recent years of naval and air patrols by Communist China in Taiwan’s airspace and its waters, just like in Japan’s southwest islands, are so deeply troubling.”
“It gives the people, Liberation Army, Air Force, and Navy more opportunities to train for the operation in which they might go for the jugular in Taiwan,” he said. “It puts severe stress on Taiwan and Japan’s military — both their equipment and their people. You know, in times when you might be, say, doing operations or maintenance or training or just giving your troops a break, they have to scramble to intercept those Chinese aircraft and ships, and I think it also can’t help but to lead to a bit of a sense of complacency and dull the acuity of the antennae of everyone who’s involved.”
Cotton warned that on the 2,000th time that China illegally enters Taiwanese airspace, nothing may happen, and then the very next time, they may decide to launch a full-scale invasion.
“So I think that we have serious reason to be very concerned about all of these incursions,” he said.
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