US Navy Chief Warns Xi Jinping's Army Could Invade Taiwan Before 2024: 'I Don't Mean To Be Alarmist...It's Just That We Can't Wish That Away'

The U.S. Navy's chief has warned that Xi Jinping's army may invade Taiwan before 2024. 

What Happened: Washington is paying close attention to the threat posed by China to the island nation and U.S. naval operations head Admiral Mike Gilday sid that the U.S. military must prepare for the possibility of Taiwan's invasion by China.

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"When we talk about the 2027 window, in my mind that has to be a 2022 window or potentially a 2023 window," Gilday told the Atlantic Council, according to the Financial Times. "I don't mean at all to be alarmist...it's just that we can't wish that away."

Comments from Gilday came days after Antony Blinken, the ​​U.S. Secretary of State, at the Stanford University forum on Monday said that "Beijing was determined to pursue reunification [with Taiwan] on a much faster timeline."

At the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi also said China would never renounce the right to use force to resolve the Taiwan issue. "Resolving the Taiwan issue is the Chinese people's own business, and it up to the Chinese people to decide," Xi said.
The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will discuss China and tensions over Taiwan and North Korea's recent missile launches in meetings with the Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Tokyo next week, reported Reuters.

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