Chinese President Xi Jingping is reportedly purging the country’s military and bringing in generals willing to go to war in a move that could lead to an invasion of Taiwan and drag the Unites States into World War Three, according to a Daily Mail report.
This is coming as Germany is reported to have prepared for an armed conflict against Russia, according to some classified documents accessed from the German defence ministry.
The Chinese leader, seen by many as a dictator, is “trying to gain control of the military,” Gordon Chang told Business Insider, adding that “I think that he is thinking that he needs officers who are prepared to actually fight.”
According to Chang, author of “China Is Going to War,” Xi feels “that many of China’s general officers don’t want to fight.” As a result, he said, the Chinese premier sees “a force led by an officer corps that is ambivalent about going to war.”
China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory, and fears have grown in recent years that Xi is planning an invasion in the coming years, in the face of increasingly hostile rhetoric and simulated blockades of the island.
Beijing has never renounced the use of force to take what it views as a renegade province, and Xi has said that unification is inevitable.
But Beijing has also been involved in low-level clashes with India along their shared border, as well as disputes over nearby islands with Japan and the Philippines.
Since taking power in 2012, he has overhauled Beijing’s military forces with a series of reforms while also cutting its personnel, working to improve military-civilian corporation and reshaping its structure.
China has been hostile to its neighbours in recent years.
But perhaps the most concerning flash point is Taiwan, which just on Saturday elected a new president who is opposed to reunification with China.
China has encroached on Taiwan’s air defence zone several times over the past five years, prompting fears that an invasion is on the horizon.
Meanwhile Germany, according to Bild newspaper, could enter into conflict with Russia that could expand the war on Ukraine by attacking NATO ally countries, pointing towards the possible beginning of World War 3.
Next month, February it would be two years the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine started and there’s no end in sight as the West led by US saw the conflict as best opportunity to.
Moscow has ridiculed the claims, calling them a “hoax.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday that he refused to “even comment on this report.” Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also brushed the claims off as a “last year’s powerful zodiac forecast,” RT reports.
The report also alleged that armed forces in Europe are preparing for an attack by Russia on NATO’s eastern flank, which could include a cyber-offensive.
The clashes according the outlet will escalate in September, citing classified documents, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to launch a large-scale military exercise involving about 50,000 Russian troops in Western Russia and Belarus.