The escalation of tensions in the South China Sea at any time could turn into a clash between China and the United States.
This is reported by the agency “Reuters”.
Both powers are carrying out active maneuvers in the region. In particular, the United States sent another warship through the Taiwan Strait. This happened just a few days after the American exercise. China is also not lagging behind its strategic opponent. Over the past three weeks, it announced four exercises at once along its entire coast.
Agency sources in the semi-recognized Taiwan’s security services say the chances of “firing a shot while polishing a weapon” are very high. This is linked precisely with the excessive military activity of the United States and China in the region.
“Neither side wants to start a conflict. The fundamentals haven’t changed much”, – a Western diplomat told the reporters.
“But high activity does increase the likelihood of accidental conflict”.
Chinese military expert Ni Lexiong, in turn, notes that China has not yet conducted so many exercises at the same time.
“Conducting exercises in three seas immediately means that China is testing its ability to deal with enemies arriving simultaneously from three directions – for example, from Taiwan, from Japan and from the United States”, – he explains.
At the same time, the expert emphasizes that “from a historical point of view, frequent exercises are a clear predictor of war”.
Former US Deputy Joint Chiefs of Staff James Winnefeld and former CIA Chief Michael Morrell previously modeled the outbreak of armed conflict in their report. Their scenario suggests that China will take advantage of the highly controversial US elections in November to deploy forces to Taiwan. Washington will be very busy with internal problems in order to respond to the incident.