China’s military forces are conducting large and aggressive activities near Taiwan that threaten U.S. and allied security, the commander of the Indo-Pacific Command told a Senate hearing Thursday.
Adm. Sam Paparo testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that his forces are strong enough to deter Chinese military action in the region but discouraging future Chinese aggression will require a buildup of American power.
“China’s unprecedented aggression and military modernization poses a serious threat to the homeland, our allies and our partners,” Adm. Paparo said during an annual posture hearing.
China’s muscle-flexing in the region includes what the four-star admiral described as a 300% increase in large-scale coercive military operations near Taiwan. Beijing has targeted the self-ruled island for annexation.
Chinese military activities near the island are not exercises but “dress rehearsals” for a military “forced unification.”
Other concerns in the region, the admiral told lawmakers, include North Korea’s continued buildup of nuclear weapons and forces, a threat that has intensified with the expansion of North Korea’s growing partnership with Russia. Pyongyang sent troops and weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine. In exchange, North Korea is receiving Russian missile and submarine technology, Adm. Paparo said.
Pyongyang has supplied Russia with “hundreds” of KN-24 short-range missiles and thousands of artillery shells, he said.
Russia also poses an increasing regional danger through greater military cooperation with China in the Pacific.
Adm. Paparo said increases in combined Chinese and Russian naval and bomber operations near U.S. shores indicate those forces are preparing to jointly battle the United States.
The commander said he is confident that U.S. forces in the Pacific, especially the advanced U.S. attack submarines, provide “credible deterrence” against any Chinese military action.
“I remain confident in our deterrence posture, but the trajectory must change,” he said. He added that the congressionally mandated Pacific Deterrence Initiative “should counter the China threat.”
The most recent defense authorization law provided $15.6 billion to the initiative for weapons and training.
The U.S. military in the region needs greater investment in deploying more long-range strike weapons, integrated air and missile defenses, and greater numbers of autonomous and artificial-intelligence-driven weapons systems, Adm. Paparo said.
The command’s most important priority in countering the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is to become “dominant” in space and cyberspace. To that end, the command needs tools to knock out the PLA’s growing command, control and intelligence systems.
The commander called for deploying defensive U.S. space weapons to counter China’s arsenal of space weaponry, something the Biden administration opposed.
He said the PLA is outproducing the U.S. military in warplanes, missiles, naval forces and space weapons and is speeding up its weapons production.
Although deterring conflict is a duty, it must be backed by weapons and capabilities to win any conflict, Adm. Paparo said.
Army Gen Xavier T. Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, testified alongside Adm. Paparo and told senators that North Korea is expanding its nuclear arsenal.
Gen. Brunson said he would oppose any cuts to the 23,000 U.S. troops in South Korea amid reports that some in the Trump administration favor reducing the U.S. troop footprint on the Korean Peninsula.
Troop cuts there “inherently would reduce our ability to prevail in conflict,” the four-star general said.
Committee Chairman Roger F. Wicker said he warned last year that the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific was shifting in China’s favor.
“Since then, the Chinese Communist Party has significantly increased its coercive activity toward Taiwan and the Philippines,” he said.
Mr. Wicker, Mississippi Republican, said the Indo-Pacific Command needs $11 billion for its unfunded needs.
“We need more survivable long-range munitions, more assured U.S. command and control systems, and an improved ability to counter China’s increasingly capable cyber and space systems,” he said. “The risk is simply too high for us to avoid making these changes.”
Asked about China’s ability to impose air superiority in the region, Adm. Paparo said the PLA has 2,100 fighters and 200 H-6 bombers. It produces fighters at a rate of 1.2 jets for every U.S. warplane. PLA long-range air-to-air missiles also pose a “tremendous threat,” he said.
Chinese ship production is even more unbalanced. Adm. Paparo said the PLA produces six warships for every 1.8 U.S. warships.
China’s air power does not “hold the high ground in first island chain,” Adm. Paparo said regarding the string of islands in Asia closest to China. “Ceding air superiority is not an option.”
On the impact of losing Taiwan to a Chinese invasion, Adm. Paparo warned that the loss of the democratic island to Beijing would likely lead to nuclear weapons proliferation in Japan and South Korea.
Adm. Paparo provided the first public comments on reported Chinese ships covertly cutting undersea communications cables near Taiwan.
Chinese vessels recently cut several undersea cables in what Taiwan authorities called an example of “gray zone” warfare.
The activities reflect Chinese plans for a conflict involving maritime militia ships engaged in cable cutting as a prelude to war.
He called for the development of resilient communications capabilities for the U.S. islands of Guam and Hawaii, where the Indo-Pacific Command headquarters is located.
Alternative communications could be routed through low earth satellite networks such as Starlink, he said.
When asked about the deployment of a new tactical nuclear missile on U.S. attack submarines, Adm. Paparo said he favors rapid deployment.
Plans call for deploying the submarine-launched cruise missile-nuclear by 2034.
“I agree 2034 is too late. Sooner,” he said.
The admiral said he favors speeding up the fielding of U.S. hypersonic missiles, including long-range hypersonic weapons, for the Army and Navy.
The Army missile is due for deployment later this year. The Navy system has been delayed.
The missiles are needed to “close in time any actor’s kill chain,” Adm. Paparo said.
“If your adversary can strike you five times faster than you can strike your enemy, it incentivizes first strikes with his capability,” he said.
“The coin of the realm in the 21st century is speed. Who does things faster wins.”
Fielding U.S. hypersonic missiles is critical to countering the asymmetry of Chinese hypersonic missiles, he said.
Adm. Paparo defended the power of U.S. aircraft carriers that one senator said were “sitting ducks” for Chinese missile attacks.
“It’s a moving duck with the ability to defend itself,” said Adm. Paparo, who served as an aircraft carrier pilot.
Carrier advantages include massive firepower with warplanes capable of firing land-attack and anti-ship missiles.
He said U.S. submarines are also becoming more vulnerable to Chinese anti-submarine warfare capabilities, although the Navy’s underwater warfare capabilities remain a generation ahead of China’s.
China’s development of quantum computers could allow the PLA to “flood the zone” and detect U.S. submarines, he said.
“They’re working very hard to find [U.S. submarines], and we’re working very hard to counter them,” Adm. Paparo said, adding that the number of submarines and the submarine industrial base need to be increased.
