“I don’t think they lack for anything that they need,” Lyle Goldstein, director of Asia engagement at Defense Priorities, said of China’s forces. “You could always ask the question, ‘Could they be more ready?’ and I suppose there are some certain areas, but I, for a long time, maintained they have what they need to undertake the campaign.”
“The evidence shows that these fleets are all ready to mobilize, really at a moment’s notice,” Goldstein said. “China has the biggest ports in the world and they’re full of these ships, so putting them together into fleets to make this attack would be very quick, within days.”
Goldstein’s estimate is that while it’s still risky, “they have what they need, and they’re ready to undertake” an attack. “I don’t think we’ll have a lot of warning,” he added, noting a sudden set of actions that only unfolds over a period of hours would be more likely than many other clearer, long-term signs.
Goldstein said that in tracking Chinese media closely, calls for reunification are more frequent and heated. “I am concerned that China may see some reason to go earlier rather than later,” he explained
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