The US has benefited from like-minded partners, all at risk in the Chinese conflict, and General Charles Flynn said he has retired.
Retired General Charles Flynn told the House Committee on the threat from the Communist Party of China (CCP) that the position of US partners and allies being taken away is a much-needed advantage for the United States.
“This means that the 119th Parliament could be the last full legislative meeting with the opportunity to change the calculations of (Chinese administration leader) XI (Jinping).
Flynn, who left Commander in 2024, heard on May 15th that US position was being buffered by like-minded partners who face everything at risk in China’s conflict.
“Compared to what they’re doing today, what the Chinese military was doing 10 years ago is dramatically different,” he said. “Are they rehearsing? Are they prepared? Absolutely. But we have this advantage, so I think we are in a very good position to compete with them. The advantage is the partnership between local allies and partners.”
Flynn gave an example of the Philippines, consisting of 7,500 islands south of the South China Sea. The Army accounts for 70% of the military, and the Philippines has more military divisions than the US.
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“And what I’m saying is, if we match them, we’ll be in a very different place in terms of assurance and deterrence,” Flynn said.
“This is not just a US issue. It must be a Taiwan issue, a Japanese issue, a Philippines issue. It must be the entire first island chain, including Korea.”
Former Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said in his testimony that the US is the leader in its partnership with Taiwan and that it “should take credit” because of some of the island’s resilience in democracy.
The US led, other countries followed, and the CCP took notes, Campbell said.
However, Campbell pointed out that China has similarly strengthened its partnerships, and most concerned it is strengthening its partnerships not only with Russia but also with countries in the global southern part.
“There is a real concern about what China is doing to support Russia on the Ukrainian battlefield, but remember. Russia’s capabilities, the high-sonic capabilities, the silence of submarines, what they offer to China, offers us a real threat,” he said.
He added that the United States should resist the Chinese administration’s efforts to deny the UN’s role at the United Nations.
“It’s essential to buy all these other countries in Latin America, Africa and elsewhere in this approach and understand that it’s against their interests,” he said.
Training and risk management
Flynn supports the focus on land dominance, as CCP’s ultimate goal may be Taiwan’s invasion.
“Again, the last thing is to break into it, reminding people that it’s the most dangerous scenario,” he said. “If you want to increase the signs and warnings and buy time for diplomacy and political intervention, you won’t be invading the Air Force, so you need to see what you actually need to invade.
To that end, Flynn pointed out that there is better use made in existing partnerships.
He cited examples of two war ports in Hiroshima, Hiroshima, built under US leadership after World War II. “We use only about 40% of the ground storage of these facilities,” he said. “We don’t put our equipment on the ground fast enough.
“As an example, we have seven containers with prepositional devices, floating in the Pacific Ocean. We took those containers and we had our equipment floating there.
Flynn added that there was a lot of focus among lawmakers on how much Taiwan should spend on defense, but that he has not paid equal attention to whether the US can actually supply that amount of weapons or whether it can be used effectively.
“We can give them a 400 Harpoon system, but if they don’t have a crew of 400 who actually know how to make them people, then use them, use them, adopt them, make them sites, have primary, alternative, and supplementary fire positions, the number of things they have doesn’t matter,” Flynn said. “This is very important to us as a training institution.”
Retired Admiral Mark Montgomery, Mark Montgomery, is Senior Director of the Center for Cyber and Technology Innovation for the Democracy Foundation, recommending double the 500 US training teams to 1,000.
“If you’re trying to give them billions of dollars of aid, if you’re selling them tens of millions of dollars of our gear, it makes sense for us to train and work there,” he said.
Montgomery said one “zero-cost” action is to “start escort and remorse practice with Taiwan,” pointing out how both Taiwan and Japan import liquid natural gas (LNG) and how such movements are vulnerable if the Chinese military attempts to intercept those vessels.
“We need to work with Australia. We need to work with Alaska because we are so dependent on Qatar right now,” he said of the supply of LNG in the Asian region. “In the midst of the crisis, China turns to Qatar and says, “We will buy more than 15 times more LNG than Taiwan. We will need to stop deliveries to one country.”
Campbell said Europe also understood the value of such a strategy and has seen the impact of Ukraine’s natural gas shortage over the winter.
Experts and lawmakers also raised concerns about the US reliance on China on technology, including larger legacy semiconductor chips that could be used in US military equipment.
Committee ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), said Taiwan is not only a major US trading partner, but the world’s producer of the most advanced semiconductors, pointing to a short pause in supply during the pandemic.
Much of the conversation about chips is around the smallest and most sophisticated wafers made in Taiwan and needed for AI applications but also used in consumer technology, Montgomery said.
Campbell added that partner countries are likely to understand the need for change in the World Trade Agreement as long as they have a clear sense of what to expect. Continuous changes in tariffs could contribute to doubt, he warned of ongoing negotiations that the CCP will regenerate to undermine US partnerships.
“I ask you what the two countries are more dependent on, but more uncomfortable about their interdependence. It’s both the US and China,” Campbell said. “We need to diversify these supply chains, but since we’ve built up this interdependence for 30 years, it’s not an easy process, and it’s going to take more than a few days to separate us.
“If they submit a predictable policy, they are ready to take action, and while they may not like all the tariffs, if they understand what they expect, they will respond accordingly.”
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) added that if the CCP situation was left to war, “it would be a horrifying global economic disaster.”
