Days ago, in an exceptionally candid interview with the London-based newspaper The Financial Times, the highest-ranking United States Marine Corps General in Japan declared that the U.S. is “setting the theatre” for war with China in the Asia-Pacific region, as it did in Ukraine in post-2014.
Lieutenant General James Bierman, speaking bluntly about the ongoing preparations by the U.S. to oppose China’s increasing influence in the region, said that Washington is in the process of preparing a counter-China “theatre” by strengthening military ties with Southeast Asian allies, such as Japan, the Philippines, and others in the region.
In plain language, Bierman is saying that the United States is preparing for war with China. He said the U.S. is now working with countries like the Philippines and Japan in order to build a military coalition to take on the Chinese.
The U.S. and Japanese armed forces are rapidly integrating their command structure and scaling up combined operations as Washington and its Asian allies prepare for a possible conflict with China, such as a war over Taiwan, Lieutenant General Bierman told the FT.
Bierman stated directly that the war in Ukraine has taken the course that it has—meaning the reason it has been prolonged—due to the way the United States helped to build the country up following the 2014 revolution: having armed it, having set up ammunition and fuel depots, as well as helping it to establish fortifications in strategic areas.
The lieutenant general asked the interviewer rhetorically: “Why have we achieved the level of success we’ve achieved in Ukraine?”
“A big part of that has been because after Russian aggression in 2014 and 2015, we earnestly got after preparing for a future conflict: training for the Ukrainians, pre-positioning of supplies, identification of sites from which we could operate support, sustain operations,” he said.
Bierman, the commander of the Third Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) and of Marine Forces Japan, said the U.S. is now doing exactly the same thing in the Asia-Pacific region. “We call that setting the theatre. And we are setting the theatre in Japan, in the Philippines, in other locations.”
It is worth noting that III MEF is the sole Marine Corps crisis response force permanently stationed outside of the United States, which means that Lieutenant General Bierman and his Marines would act as the tip of the spear for the U.S. if it were to engage in a military conflict with China.
Bierman, speaking of a potential military confrontation with China over Taiwan, then said: “As we square off with the Chinese adversary, who is going to own the starting pistol and is going to have the ability potentially to initiate hostilities … we can identify decisive key terrain that must be held, secured, defended, leveraged.“
