Top US General Warns China That Conflict Over Taiwan Will Be ‘Bad Choice’

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on April 7, 2022. Win McNamee/Getty Images

China would make “a really bad choice” if it chose to engage in a conflict over Taiwan, Gen. Mark Milley said, as he reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to providing Taiwan with military aid.

Speaking at an Economic Club of New York event on Nov. 9, Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States would “militarily” support Taiwan through training and the provision of weapons.

“We’re committed, through the Taiwan Relations Act, that the U.S. will continue to support Taiwan. And we will,” he was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.

Milley said that he could not predict whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has immediate plans to attack Taiwan, but that it would be difficult for the CCP to launch an amphibious attack across the Taiwan Strait.

“It’s really hard. And I think they’re coming to realize that, and they’re probably evaluating the situation and recalculating what they might do,” he noted.

Milley accused the CCP of seeking “global military superiority,” following Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s remarks during the CCP’s National Congress last month in which he vowed to enhance his armed forces to “world-class standards.”

“We’re fine with competition—no problem,” he said. “But if China wants conflict, then that would be a really bad choice for China.”

The CCP claims Taiwan as part of its territory that must be reunited with the mainland. But Taiwan has been self-governing since 1949, boasts a thriving democracy and market economy, and has never been controlled by the CCP.

The United States is legally bound by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself but maintains agreements with China that neither power will attempt to unilaterally change the status quo.

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) believed that the impulse to play the savior could lead Xi into a direct conflict with the United States, particularly if Washington did not actively deter the CCP from launching an invasion of Taiwan. To that end, Gallagher called for the United States to forward position U.S. military assets in the Indo-Pacific.

“We desperately need a sense of urgency to put hard power in Xi’s path before it is too late,” Gallagher said in an Oct. 16 statement.

“This starts with providing Taiwan with security assistance and moving them to the front of the FMS [forward military sales] line, maxing out munitions production, and augmenting and dispersing American hard power forward in the region.”

Andrew Thornebrooke contributed to this report.