US General: California Should Be Prepared for China's Possible Strikes on US Defense Industry Targets

U.S. military officials fear the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) may strike defense industry facilities and infrastructure within the United States in the event of an armed conflict between Washington and Beijing.

“If this war happens, it will happen here. It will come to us. That’s why we’re having this conversation,” U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Douglas Wickert said a meeting at Edwards Air Force Base, Reuters reports.

Wickert urged county authorities in California to prepare for possible PLA strikes on nearby U.S. defense industry targets, specifically mentioning Northrop Grumman aerospace plants. He stated that such a scenario could unfold if military deterrence against Beijing fails.

According to him, the key to deterring China lies in the cutting-edge B-21 Raider strategic bombers stationed at the base.

Reuters also highlighted U.S. military and government concerns about a potential PLA operation in Taiwan by 2027. The report noted that U.S. Air Force Command is refurbishing airfields built during World War II in the Philippines and the western Pacific to host small aviation groups.

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The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four services—Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, and Rocket Force—and four arms—Aerospace Force, Cyberspace Force, Information Support Force, and Joint Logistics Support Force. It is led by the Central Military Commission (CMC) with its chairman as commander-in-chief.The PLA can trace its origins during the Republican era to the left-wing units of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT) when they broke away in 1927 in an uprising against the nationalist government as the Chinese Red Army, before being reintegrated into the NRA as units of New Fourth Army and Eighth Route Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The two NRA communist units were reconstituted as the PLA in 1947. Since 1949, the PLA has used nine different military strategies, which it calls "strategic guidelines". The most important came in 1956, 1980, and 1993. Politically, the PLA and the paramilitary People's Armed Police (PAP) have the largest delegation in the National People's Congress (NPC); the joint delegation currently has 281 deputies—over 9% of the total—all of whom are CCP members.