A US general warned of a high risk of war with China in 2025 – most likely over Taiwan – and urged his officers to be ready for battle this year, AFP reports.

“I hope I’m wrong. My intuition tells me that we will be at war in 2025,” Air Force Gen. Michael Minihan wrote in an internal memo, the authenticity of which was confirmed by the Pentagon to AFP on Friday.

President Xi Jinping “has a team, a reason, and an opportunity for 2025,” the military said, stressing that the 2024 elections in Taiwan will give the Chinese leader “an excuse” to act.

The race for the White House planned for the same year will give China a “scattered America”, he also estimated.

This monument urges his troops to train for battle, including going to the stands for target shooting. The general offers them to “aim for the heads”.

In August, China conducted large-scale military exercises around Taiwan, an unprecedented show of force, in response to a visit to the island by Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

(source: Agerpres)

China considers the island, with a population of 24 million, as one of its provinces that has not yet been reunited with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

He notes with displeasure the persistent rapprochement in recent years between Taiwan’s authorities and the United States, which has provided the island with military support against Beijing for decades.