China flooding the zone with military exercises around Taiwan might ultimately hide what will be a full-scale operation to keep the island nation under its control, an Indo-Pacific commander is warning.

“We’re very close to that [point] where on a daily basis the fig leaf of an exercise could very well hide operational warning,” U.S. Navy Adm. Samuel Paparo told the Honolulu Defense Forum, according to the Financial Times.

“Their aggressive maneuvers around Taiwan right now are not exercises as they call them, they are rehearsals. They are rehearsals for the forced unification of Taiwan to the mainland.”

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