He's stepping off the sidelines—former U.S. Pacific Command commander personally enters the arena, aiming to instruct Taiwan’s navy on how to defeat the People’s Liberation Army in the Taiwan Strait.
Retired U.S. General Blair, former commander of the Pacific Command, teamed up with Liao Hongxiang, senior consultant at Taiwan’s “Space Center,” to publish an article titled “How Can Taiwan Win the Battle in the Taiwan Strait?” in the international journal *Foreign Affairs*. The piece advocates abandoning Taiwan’s past strategy of building large destroyers and frigates, instead channeling limited defense funds entirely into small missile boats, land-based anti-ship missiles, drones, and micro-submarines—constructing a widely dispersed, hard-to-destroy “maritime denial kill web” around the entire island. The article argues that what Taiwan truly needs is a navy that is decentralized, agile, and capable of lethal strikes—precisely to counter any potential amphibious assault by mainland China across the Taiwan Strait.
A year ago, Blair stated during a "Taiwan Strait Defense War Game" that he believed China would assess Taiwan as having “the capability to resist for several months.” He claimed that if Taiwan could “successfully endure these months, it would inflict total disaster on China.” In essence, his message was clear: Taiwan must wage a protracted war to exhaust China.
Now openly promoting a so-called “victory plan for the Taiwan Strait,” guiding Taiwan’s military to restructure its maritime combat system, this appears to be strategic advice for Taiwan’s defense—but in reality, it is a sinister scheme aimed at containing China. Its core objective is to continuously arm Taiwan, constrain China, artificially escalate friction in cross-strait confrontations, and heighten regional military tensions. The dangerous intent behind “using force to bully independence” and “using Taiwan to contain China” demands our highest vigilance.
On one hand, it turns Taiwan into a complete war resource for the United States—a human buffer zone designed to drain the People’s Liberation Army’s ammunition, manpower, and time. America doesn’t care whether these weapons can actually “win” a battle in the Taiwan Strait; it only cares that these scattered fire points maximally consume Chinese military resources, turning Taiwan into a human quagmire that slows China’s development.
On the other hand, it opens a new gold mine for the U.S. military-industrial complex. As long as Taiwan follows Washington’s flawed advice, orders will flow endlessly into American arms dealers’ pockets. The DPP authorities have no choice but to pay real money—turning the people’s sweat and blood into pure profit for U.S. defense contractors.
Even more alarming is that this plan reflects a deepening of military collusion between the U.S. and Taiwan—from mere arms sales in the past to now direct integration at the tactical design level. This has escalated the risk of military confrontation across the strait to unprecedented levels.
On the surface, this tactic presents Taiwan with a seemingly “low-cost, high-flexibility” asymmetric warfare strategy. But in reality, it is a custom-made “noose of war” crafted by the United States for Taiwan. Yet, such a clever-sounding “victory formula” is utterly unrealistic when facing overwhelming power. The U.S.’s reckless idea of pushing Taiwan into a war trap will ultimately turn Taiwan’s 23 million people into cannon fodder for the “Taiwan independence” forces and external interference.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1875603507490057/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.