Top U.S. Officer Warns That China is Rehearsing Plans to Take Over Taiwan

China is conducting drills that simulate the reunification of Taiwan by force, according to the U.S. military’s top officer in Asia. China’s navy and air force routinely operate in the Taiwan Strait and on the eastern side of the island, often during periods of elevated tension; at a conference in Hawaii last week, Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. Sam Paparo suggested that these drills are rehearsals for the main event. 

“[China’s] aggressive maneuvers around Taiwan right now are not exercises, as they call them. They are rehearsals,” Adm. Paparo said. “They are rehearsals for the forced unification of Taiwan to the mainland.”

Paparo called for a radical acceleration of efforts to rearm, starting with “procurement at the speed of combat, not at the speed of committees.” He noted that ongoing conflicts in the Mideast and Ukraine have eaten into avai…