China ready for war with US ‘in next five years'

THE West could witness armed conflict with China “within the next five years” as an increasingly belligerent Beijing rejects a post-coronavirus world order, a leading expert on the country warned last night.

- Marco Giannangeli

It follows a ramping up of tensions over China’s alleged cover-up over the Covid-19 virus and reports that it intends to brand tracts of the South China Sea an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).

Last week, a leaked report presented by China’s Ministry of State Security to President Xi Jinping revealed that global anti-China sentiment is now at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Senior Chinese sources say Xi is preparing for a worst-case scenario of armed confrontation with the US.

But China’s collision course with war began long before the coronavirus outbreak, with the rise of nationalist Xi and the ramping up of so-called “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy – named after a movie in which Chinese special forces vanquish US mercenaries in Africa and Asia.

Dean Cheng, senior research fellow for Chinese Political and Military Affairs at the US Heritage Foundation think tank, said: “The Chinese themselves describe some of their diplomats as Wolf Warriors. These include Lijian Zhao, who suggested the US started Covid-19.