Erik Prince predicts a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan in 2024
On Thursday (Dec. 28), GB News aired a video interview with Erik Prince, the founder of the controversial Blackwater company and a former U.S. Navy Seal. Prince, who is also a military expert, said he believes China will launch a military assault on Taiwan in the spring of 2024.
Prince was talking to Jacob Rees-Mogg about the failures of U.S. foreign policy under President Biden and the challenges faced by the U.S. armed forces around the globe.
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Prince said that China’s leader Xi Jinping (習近平) might think he can bully Taiwan into submission, as the U.S. has lost its influence and reputation abroad. Prince said that China must feel like they have a free pass to do whatever they want.
Prince’s remarks came a day after Xi Jinping gave a speech at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where he firmly declared that he would not allow anyone to “split Taiwan from China,” and that reunification was a “sure thing.”
Prince also blamed the U.S. for its “poor performance in Iraq and Afghanistan,” which he said led to the rise of military dangers across the world under Biden’s administration.
Prince cited the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, as well as the new threats in the broader Middle East, such as the attacks by Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea.
Prince gave his prediction for when China might attack Taiwan, saying that May or June 2024 was a probable time frame for Beijing to start its naval operations across the strait.
“If they want to take Taiwan by force, I would expect them to make a move this spring,” Prince said, according to GB News.
The day after Prince made his forecast on GB News, China announced a change in its military leadership. With only two weeks left before Taiwan’s elections, Beijing named PLAN Admiral Dong Jun as its new Minister of National Defense.
Erik Prince left Blackwater and sold the company in 2010, but his ties to CIA training programs were exposed in 2013.
Around 2014, Prince became the chairman of a private security and logistics company called the Frontier Services Group, which is owned by China and operates in Africa.
Prince resigned as chairman of the Frontier Services Group in April 2021, but he is still the leader of a similar group called the Frontier Resource Group, which has almost no online presence as of now.