US military vows ‘more lethal’ force in 2023 to deter Beijing attack on Taiwan

76bfb3d8-5bae-4ca0-a214-b9fea506c805_244f26fe

Next year will be the most important in recent memory in transforming the US military to counter China’s increasingly assertive and coercive military behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region, deter in no uncertain terms a Taiwan attack and grapple with Beijing’s nuclear build-up, senior US military officials said on Thursday.

While the US firmly opposes Russia’s war in Ukraine, China remains America’s greatest military “pacing challenge”, particularly around Taiwan, and that will be the case for decades to come, added authors of the China Military Power Report released last week.