War with US 'becoming practical reality': Chinese military official

Official says a war ‘within the president’s term’ or ‘war breaking out tonight’ are not just slogans

A Chinese military official has warned that war with the United States is becoming “a practical reality” after the swearing in of Donald Trump.

“A war ‘within the president’s term’ or ‘war breaking out tonight’ are not just slogans, they are becoming a practical reality,” the South China Morning Post quoted an official from the Commission’s Defence Mobilisation Department as having written on People's Liberation Army’s official website.



On January 20, an official from the People's Liberation Army wrote on its official website that the US's ‘rebalance’ in Asia, its deployments to the region and its push to arm South Korea with the THAAD missile-defense system were provocative "hot spots getting closer to ignition," The South China Morning Post reported.

"We hope that the US will rein in at the brink of the precipice and avoid going farther and farther down the wrong path," the authors wrote on the Chinese military's official website.

Trump and members of his administration have consistently voiced a hard line against China. Aides have said that Trump plans a major naval build-up in East Asia to counter China's rise.



Last week, the new administration of Trump vowed that the US would prevent China from taking over territory in international waters in the South China Sea, something Chinese state media has warned would require Washington to “wage war.”

The comments at a briefing from White House spokesperson Sean Spicer signaled a sharp departure from years of cautious US handling of China’s assertive pursuit of territory claims in Asia, just days after Trump took office.

“The US is going to make sure that we protect our interests there,” Spicer said when asked if Trump agreed with comments by his secretary of state nominee, Rex Tillerson, on January 11 that China should not be allowed access to islands it has built in the contested South China Sea. “It’s a question of if those islands are in fact in international waters and not part of China proper, then yeah, we’re going to make sure that we defend international territories from being taken over by one country,” he said.



Tillerson’s remarks at his Senate confirmation hearing prompted Chinese state media to say the United States would need to “wage war” to bar China’s access to the islands where it has built military-length air strips and installed weapons systems. Tillerson was asked at the hearing whether he supported a more aggressive posture toward China and said: “We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops and, second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed.”

This article originally appeared on The Independent.