Scott DesJarlais Asks Military Officials About Indicators For An ‘Imminent' China-Taiwan Conflict

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During a House Armed Services Committee hearing held before the Congressional recess, Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-MS) questioned Military officials about the possibility of a full conflict between China and Taiwan.

Transcript

00:00Thank the gentleman. Chair now, I recognize the gentleman from Tennessee, Dr. Desjardins.

00:04Thank you, Chairman. Admiral Paparo, good to see you.

00:08You noted that PLA activity around Taiwan jumped 300% last year,

00:12including what you described as dress rehearsals for potential invasion.

00:16What indicators are you watching most closely to assess whether those rehearsals are moving towards actual preparations for imminent conflict?

00:23We watched the transloading of equipment, of personnel, of ordnance.

00:30We looked deeper into some of the non-military instruments of national power for the People's Republic of China

00:37in order to gain back strategic and operational warning to give us early leverage to position a force to respond to conflict.

00:46And you've spoken publicly about Hellscape Plan to deter invasions through unmanned systems,

00:54and you were very generous with your time on Code L. Kelly in February at your headquarters in laying that out in great detail.

01:02In open source, can you walk us through how this fits into your broader deterrence framework

01:09and how we're helping ensure Taiwan is investing in the right capabilities to make this concept viable?

01:16Yes, sir. As discussed in the Black Sea, there are spaces where the force need not gain air superiority or maritime superiority,

01:25but just deny it to the other at low human cost.

01:30And this is the essence of Hellscape, undersea unmanned, undersea vehicles, unmanned surface vehicles,

01:38unmanned air systems, and loitering munitions.

01:42Summing those, operating them within one common command and control framework to be able to put them to that best use.

01:50And Taiwan, for that matter, is also making those investments.

01:55And those investments are and must be aligned to the investments that we're making.

02:00Thank you. And Admiral, last week the U.S. and Chinese military officials held their first working-level maritime security talk

02:06since the start of this administration.

02:08Can you update the committee on how these conversations went and how you see their value in the current environment?

02:17Both sides were very direct.

02:20They were conducted professionally.

02:22And we lodged several inputs into the discussions about unsafe, unprofessional behavior,

02:31the deployment of flares in front of our partner nation's vehicles and, I should say, aircraft, dangerous maneuvers around ships.

02:43And it's an important dialogue that we had.

02:46And I feel confident that the People's Republic of China caught the message.

02:51Okay. And you touched on this briefly with Mr. Whitman, but just a little deeper dive.

02:56We often hear that alliances are our asymmetric advantage, and I agree with that in principle.

03:00But how do we ensure that those relationships may net contributors to deterrence rather than creating dependencies?

03:06And what have you already seen that you would like to see over the next year or two

03:11that would signal they're stepping up in the face of the PLA threat?

03:16Greater investment in their own defense from a standpoint of percentage of their GDP,

03:23their gross domestic product, as an indicator.

03:26Acquiring the right systems that are interoperable among all of the partners.

03:31And, of course, there's Australia's historic investment in AUKUS and the United Kingdom, I might also add.

03:40There is Japan's investment in a counter-strike capability with the acquisition of 400 Tomahawk land attack missiles.

03:49These are some of the examples of how this is operationalized.

03:53Are there gaps that we still need to fill to close and make those efforts more strategically impactful?

03:59There are always gaps because we're never satisfied with how ready we are.

04:02But, yes, we have to speed up our ability to co-produce capabilities.

04:09We have to speed up the bureaucratic barriers to executing those faster.

04:14And we must reform the industrial base so that those capabilities deliver on time.

04:19Thank you, sir.

04:20And with that, I'll yield back.

04:22Thank you, sir.

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