President Donald Trump will visit China on Wednesday for multiday meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
As the U.S.-China trade war continues through tariffs on Chinese exports and the U.S. expends munitions in its war with Iran, some experts believe China may feel emboldened to make demands or move on Taiwan. Trump’s invitation was formalized by a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announcement on Monday.
China has allegedly provided the TEE-01B spy satellite capable of targeting missiles and drones to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to unconfirmed reporting from the Financial Times.
Images released by TEE-01B manufacturer The Earth Eye Co. show the spy satellite’s precision, even depicting a standard-sized soccer field from space with high fidelity.
The State Department referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to the White House for comment, which did not immediately respond.
“We have nothing to provide at this time,” Department of War deputy press secretary Jacob Bliss told the DCNF.
‘We’re Bombing It’
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a self-governing democracy claimed by Beijing. It is located less than two miles away from the Chinese mainland.
“There’s but one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said in a press conference on Wednesday.
As the U.S. military continuously expends munitions in the Iran War and shuffles munitions from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), national security experts fear that China may seize this opportunity to strike Taiwan while the U.S. has a reduced military presence in the region.
Japan was warned that deliveries of Tomahawk missiles would be delayed because of the Iran War, Bloomberg reported.
Key U.S. interceptor stockpiles have also been depleted in the U.S. effort to defend Israel, Gulf States and U.S. military Bases from Iranian attacks. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles and Patriot missile interceptors have been depleted by the Iran War and will take over four years to replenish, a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report states.
The 12-day war also depleted these munitions before the current war in Iran. U.S. military expended more than 150 THAAD interceptors during the 12-day war, a CSIS report states.
Offensive munition stockpiles have also been significantly affected by the war. Precision Strike Missile and Tomahawk Land Attack Missile stockpiles will take nearly four years to replenish, according to a CSIS report.
“A Trump administration, which has degraded its military munition stockpiles because of this war and is potentially distracted by a bitter Congressional elections campaign through October into November, might be distracted enough that the Chinese could see an opening that might be too good to pass,” Retired Australian Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan during an interview with Radio Free Europe.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson warned of U.S. operations in the Middle East attacking railroad infrastructure constructed by China.
“For example, the latest completed railroad in their [Chinese] five base road initiative railroads was probably the most strategic one in many ways,” Wilkerson said on The Tucker Carlson Show, May 4. “It brings China’s Pacific ports all the way around on land and then intended was up the Persian Gulf along the old route that we used to resupply the Soviet Union during World War II and eventually into the Caucasus and beyond. And now we’re bombing it. Israel and we [the U.S. military] are bombing that railroad.”
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