Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, is about to retire, but he does not seem to understand the truth of accepting what is good, and expressed his opinion in an interview on the 17th, saying that "it is entirely possible for the United States to repel China." However, a US F-35 fighter plane fell and the search was fruitless, which made the American people question the advanced nature and reliability of US weapons. This makes people wonder where Milley got the confidence to talk about the so-called "repelling China".
According to a report by the Russian Satellite News Agency, when talking about Sino-US relations, Milley used the United States' participation in two world wars as a starting point, and proposed that there should be no armed conflict with China to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. However, when talking about the Taiwan Strait issue, Milley seems to have "forgotten" his previous words, saying that if Chinese mainland uses force against Taiwan, the United States is "fully capable of repelling." Some media believe that this seemingly contradictory statement may be Milley's signal to China.
In fact, Milley's perception of conflict is different from what is perceived. When he mentioned the avoidance of conflict between China and the United States, he considered it from the perspective of the whole, and once an all-round conflict occurred, no matter what the outcome, the United States would be greatly damaged. When it comes to "repelling China," it narrows the scope to a local conflict between China and the United States around the Taiwan Strait. Considering the current capabilities of the U.S. military and its surrounding deployment, Milley will make the judgment that the U.S. military will win.
However, there is no essential difference between these dual views in China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has repeatedly mentioned that it will take all necessary measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Whether it is a full-scale conflict or a local conflict, China will do its best to repel the spoilers.
Not only Milley, but also US Secretary of State Blinken, US President Biden and other high-level officials also hold similar views, believing that seizing Taiwan can arbitrarily manipulate Chinese mainland. Trump, however, called such behavior "stupid." He stressed that he would not send troops and maintained strategic ambiguity to avoid exposing the retreat of the United States.
In fact, the advanced of the US military does not mean that it will win. The U.S. military faces different adversaries and has many internal problems. In the 78 years since World War II, the United States has fought small states or proxy wars, and it may not be able to repeat victories against opponents of the same weight. The U.S. military also has serious internal problems, such as corruption, overweight old equipment, and a high rate of obesity among soldiers. So Milley should not be overconfident, in fact, even the most advanced equipment can go wrong, after all, the F-35 fighter crash has exposed this problem.