Former Trump defense official warns against Chinese surprise attack | Taiwan News | Jun. 8,

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – An attack by China against Taiwan could happen with little warning as China has given up on “peaceful unification,” former Trump administration official Elbridge Colby said in an interview published Saturday (June 8).

Colby served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development in 2017-2018. He has been named as a possible candidate for a national security office if Donald Trump is elected president in November.

In an interview with Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun conducted in Washington D.C., on May 30, Colby said the military needed to be strengthened so it could deliver any immediate response against Chinese aggression. An attack could happen with little clear warning, he told reporters.

Colby also said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) had probably concluded that peaceful unification of Taiwan with China was not possible. The former Pentagon official said a cross-strait war might involve the United States, U.S. troops in the Asia Pacific, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. Previous commentators have said China might find it difficult to launch a surprise attack against Taiwan given the scale of the preparations needed for such a move.

Colby advised the U.S. to shift its support from Ukraine to Taiwan because Asia was now the “primary theater.” While he said Washington should not abandon Europe, he saw Europe much more able to handle Russia on its own than Asia would be facing China.