TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The head of the US intelligence community on Thursday (May 2) said that Russia could coordinate militarily with China to open a second front if it attacked Taiwan.
During a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearingSenator Mike Rounds asked Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines whether, given the increasing military cooperation between Beijing and Moscow, an attack by either on the US and its allies would provoke hostilities from the other.
Haines replied, “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t. ”
Rounds asked Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse what preparations the Pentagon is making to respond to the potential threat of joint Chinese-Russian military actions.
Kruse said that developments over the past two years have prompted the Pentagon to re-examine its analysis of joint force requirements. He said that even if Russian and Chinese military forces are not interoperable, “they would certainly be cooperative, and we would need to take that into account in force structure and planning.”
Rounds then asked both officials if plans had been updated to reflect the “no limits partnership” between Beijing and Moscow.
Kruse said the Pentagon is implementing a multi-year planning process that starts with the assessed threat and is followed by vetting of potential operations. Regarding contingencies to respond to military coordination between China and Russia, the department is “in the middle” of reviewing plans.
Haines said that her agency has collected intelligence pointing to increasing coordination and the “no-limits partnership” between China and Russia across every sector of society, including politics, economics, military, and technology. She said these developments are prompting “new planning” across the US government.
Rounds asserted that if one country attacks the US, the other will open up a “second front.” Therefore, Rounds said the military must prepare to fight on two different fronts at the same time.
Haines contended that a two-front war is possible, while the likelihood “depends on the scenario.”
When Rounds asked if a two-front scenario was more likely than two or three years ago, Kruse said, “I think from the Department of Defense perspective, that would certainly be the case.” Kruse said the question would be whether there would be two full-scale fronts, which will become clearer over time and the Pentagon will need to prepare to respond accordingly.
