Epoch Times - Is the ‘Pivot to Asia’ Finally Happening? | Gen. Charles Flynn (Ret.)
Aired: 2025-12-15
Duration: 03:51


=== Chinese Threat Dominance (02:20) ===

[00:00:00]  This is the one thing about the U.S. military that I found to be so important is that, at least for me out in the Pacific over the last decade, every day I woke up, I woke up and thought about the Chinese threat.
[00:00:15]  Secondarily, I thought about the North Korean threat, and tangentially, I thought about the Russian threat.
[00:00:21]  And that gives a military great focus.
[00:00:23]  Now, my trouble with it is that we've said we've pivoted to the Pacific for more than a decade.
[00:00:32]  And in actual behavior and actions, that's not accurate.
[00:00:36]  I'm going to give you an example and a story.
[00:00:39]  So in April of 2022, I was in a ASEAN country and I was at a meeting with the Chief of Defense, the Chief of Army, and their Minister of Defense.
[00:00:53]  And an announcement had been made that evening that a $33 billion support package was going to Ukraine because the war had just started in February of 22.
[00:01:06]  And the Chief of Army and the Chief of Defense stood there with me next to the Minister of Defense, and they asked me this question.
[00:01:13]  They really made a comment to me.
[00:01:15]  And they said, are you serious?
[00:01:19]  $33 billion to Ukraine?
[00:01:21]  You've been talking about pivoting to the Pacific for more than a decade.
[00:01:26]  What is going to happen now?
[00:01:28]  Are you going to be here?
[00:01:30]  And I think that that really struck me at that particular point.
[00:01:36]  And I thought, boy, if we don't signal and message our will to our treaty allies and partners in the region, we're going to create a lack of confidence in the United States in the Indo-Pacific at a time when we can ill afford to have that.
[00:01:58]  And that story rung true with me throughout the rest of my time in uniform out there because I tried to hustle all the best I could to pull together the Army leaders in the region.

=== All Forces, Joint and Multinational (01:45) ===

[00:02:08]  And again, I think the Army leaders in the region, not only do they leave the Army and go into political positions, they also go into important business positions.
[00:02:17]  And they're influential in all of these countries.
[00:02:20]  So I was, you know, making heavy investments in my time in the region to pull together those countries because I honestly believe the greatest counterweight that we have to China is the network of allies and partners that we have across the region.
[00:02:38]  We need to maintain the United States being the security partner of choice, even though China may be the economic partner of necessity in the region.
[00:02:51]  And I think the best way to keep that security architecture bound together is by applying all domain, all forces, joint and multinational in the region.
[00:03:02]  And that includes the land power network that is actually central to maintaining security in the region.
[00:03:08]  And again, I'm making this point because I run afoul or at odds sometimes when I hear, well, I mean, just this morning before I came over here, I hear, the theater is an air and maritime theater, and it's not.
[00:03:21]  It's a joint theater.
[00:03:23]  It's a multinational theater.
[00:03:24]  It's got joint and multinational problems.
[00:03:26]  It's only going to be solved by the joint force and multinational forces.
[00:03:30]  And so we have to do that with our allies and partners.
[00:03:32]  Clearly, there's an economic component to this.
[00:03:34]  Clearly, there's an information.
[00:03:36]  Clearly, there's a diplomatic component to it.
[00:03:39]  But make no doubt about it, the Chinese military and the military instrument that they have created in the last 15 to 20 years is a very, very dangerous, very dangerous arsenal.