China could invade Taiwan within the next six years as Beijing accelerates its moves to supplant American military power in Asia, a top US commander has told a US Senate armed services committee hearing, as reported by The Guardian.

“I worry that they’re [China] accelerating their ambitions to supplant the United States and our leadership role in the rules-based international order… by 2050,” said Washington’s top military officer in Asia-Pacific, Admiral Philip Davidson. “Taiwan is clearly one of their ambitions before that. And I think the threat is manifest during this decade, in fact, in the next six years,” he added.

Taiwan believes China intends to invade the island nation, its foreign minister said in December 2020. The Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan as a rogue province and publicly argues it should not be afforded the status granted to sovereign states, such as inclusion in the World Health Organization. The Chinese Communist Party also maintains that Taiwan must one day return to the mainland as an inalienable part of their territory.

Also Taiwanese diplomats in Europe expressed their concerns. “Since the last quarter of 2020, China has persistently intruded into Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ). And this year, up until February 15, China has already conducted a total of 93 sorties on 35 separate days. This represents a stark rise in comparison to previous years. (…) The increasing prevalence of explicitly offensive military aircraft, including a large number of bombers and fast-moving fighter jets, represents a chilling step and a clear, provocative signal from Beijing,” Taiwanese ambassador to the EU wrote for The European Post.