The US and China could go to war with each other within two years, in 2025. This is the warning to his subordinates launched by General Michael Minihan, head of the air mobility command which oversees the fleet of transport and refueling aircraft. The Washington Post writes it. The senior officer urges his men to step up their preparations for a potential conflict, citing Chinese President Xi Jimping’s aspirations and the possibility that Americans are not paying due attention. If not when it will be too late, once the conflict has started. “I hope I’m wrong but my instinct tells me that we will fight in 2025,” he wrote in a note already distributed to his collaborators.
Xi secured his third term and set up his war council in October 2022. Taiwan’s presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a reason. The presidential election in the United States is in 2024 and will offer Xi a distracted America. Xi’s team, reason and opportunity are all aligned for 2025,” he concludes.
Minihan: Be more aggressive. The Air Force confirms the memo
Minihan’s memo encourages the thousands of troops under his command to prepare for war in many other ways. “Run deliberately, not recklessly – he writes – If you feel comfortable in your approach to training, then you are not taking enough risks”, but you must be “more aggressive”. The memo, first reported on Friday by NBC News, is dated Feb. 1 and was distributed to Minihan’s subordinate commanders. An Air Force spokeswoman Major Hope Cronin confirmed its authenticity, writing in a statement shared with media after the note began circulating on social media that Minihan’s order “builds on the fundamental efforts made last year by the Air Mobility Command to prepare the Air Mobility Forces for future conflicts, should deterrence fail”. But a defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Minihan’s comments “are not representative of the department’s views on China.”
