Ex-Pentagon adviser: US provoking China needlessly over Taiwan

The Biden administration is now provoking China needlessly over Taiwan, risking a war Beijing does not want, just as it and previous US governments provoked Russia for eight years over Ukraine, retired US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor, a senior Pentagon adviser to then-president Donald Trump, told Sputnik on August 2.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a US congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific region. They landed in Taiwan, despite objections from Beijing.

"We are provoking the Chinese irresponsibly just as we provoked the Russians for years over Ukraine and we are ignoring Beijing's warnings the same way we ignored the warnings of the Russian government on Ukraine," Macgregor said. "The Biden administration... policy on Taiwan is reckless and dangerous."

Americans did not remember or realize that Taiwan had been used as a base for the invasion of China in 1937, a war that cost millions of Chinese lives, Macgregor pointed out.

"In the 1930s, Imperial Japan used Taiwan as a base to invade China. If the Chinese think we are militarizing Taiwan to use as a base against them they will certainly invade and we are in no position to stop them," he said. "The United States is not prepared for any war with China. We do not have the logistical infrastructure in the Western Pacific to wage it."

China can absorb everything US conventional forces throw at it, Macgregor added.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby this week said Pelosi's visit is not unprecedented, and does not change US policy on Taiwan. The Biden administration has said the visit does not provide a pretext for China to escalate tensions.