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Adm. Samuel Paparo, Commander of the American Indo-Pacific Command, gives an opening speech during the Vietnam Vetelian Combators’ Day ceremony in the Pacific National Memorial Cemetery in Honolulu, March 28, 2025. Photo of the US NavyWar in the Western Pacific would break the world economies, would run the risk of spreading nuclear conflicts and leaving half a million “death of despair” in its wake, the main American commander said in Indo-Pacific on Thursday.
When he was asked why the Americans should care about Taiwan’s future, administrator Samuel Paparo said that the navigable lane separates it from China, one of the main commercial channels in the world, could be more devastating than the great depression in the 1930s in the world. It would also exhibit the dependence of the United States in Taipei for the production of semiconductors, essential for modernization and growth of the domestic economy.
Chinese aggressive military actions towards the autonomous island increased by 300%. As he noted in the past, these are “not exercises but rehearsals” for a possible forced takeover.
The war in the region that Paparo declared could produce “a reduction of 25% of GDP (gross domestic product) in Asia, an effect of 10 to 12 by the GDP to the reduction of the United States of America, unemployment resulting from 7 to 10%” greater than normal levels “and 500,000 excesses of death of despair”.
Even a successful American intervention “would be half a half impact, therefore always a serious result” and “a lot of human misery”.
The tenuous nature of alliances and partnerships would also be at stake, he warned. “Some of the states” of the Indo-Pacific “would submit … at the long-term objective of China to set the rules of the world”.
Others, who “would never submit” to Chinese threats, could embark on their own nuclear weapons programs, degenerating risks in a conflict. Paparo and the army general Xavier Brunson, a high-level commander in Korea, said that Tokyo and Seoul would examine this option if the American military commitment to the peninsula and North East Asia and Taiwan were reduced.
Paparo added: “With the loss of force on the Korean peninsula, there is a greater probability that it (North Korea) would invade.” The reduction in force significantly lower than 28,000 “would reduce our ability to prevail”.
Seoul makes “important contributions beyond the Korean peninsula” to Indo-Pacific Security, he said.
Brunson in his declaration of opening, said that if large cuts had been made dissuade the assault of North Korea and retain Russia and China in the “becomes problematic” region.
“They are an essential part of the help of indopacom command see, feel and understand in the north and dissuade a large number of opponents,” said Brunson in response to a question.
“(The intentions of the North Korean leader Kim Jong one) could change with the wind and he built an army designed to impose huge costs directly on South Korea,” said Paparo. “It is very important to maintain this deterrent posture.”
By examining the means of strengthening Indo-Pacific security, Paparo said that the order could use more C5R counter (order, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and recognition) in long-term fires and effects and from fire and long-term that endanger the platforms and systems of an opponent.
“Support is what won the Second World War,” he said. “You cannot (artificial intelligence) at your exit from a material deficiency.” He reported the attention of the shipbuilding committee in delivery and construction, labor shortages, the need for command to have a diversified fleet of oil and have “the capacity of elevator that we can order in danger”.
Paparo said that the command “evolves in this direction” of the use of unmanned systems “by providing smaller useful loads” to smaller and more dispersed forces.
On the broader question of the state of the amphibious fleet of the navy, he added that it is “under-strength and not ready enough”. These 32 ships carry navies, their equipment and their planes.
In its December conclusion, the GAO wrote: “The navy must maintain a fleet of 31 operational ships to meet these needs. But half the fleet is in poor condition and some ships have not been available for years at the same time.
At this week’s maritime space symposium, the navy has announced a pilot program to improve the preparation of amphibious ships that will start this year.
As Usni News reported, as part of the program, the Navy will end the maintenance package offered 500 days before the start of the so-called “signing availability” and will grant the 360-day contract before the start of the overhaul, said vice-admiral Brendan McLane, commander of the naval surface force.
Hope is that knowing what the work package is more than a year in advance and having more time to plan the availability will result in the number of days behind the maintenance of amphibious ships.
The objective of the navy is to have 80% of its surface fleet, submarines and planes ready to be deployed in immediate crisis.
Paparo also noted that the Trump administration’s decision to retreat or eliminate USAID would benefit China.
“I continue to defend it,” he said. Otherwise, Beijing “would” grasp “the possibility of gaining more influence by responding to natural disasters and humanitarian crises.
