Senior US official feared Trump would attack China

The revelation is in Danger, a book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, to be published in the coming days, in which US Chief of Staff, General Mark Milli, reportedly initiated a secret phone call. His Chinese counterpart assured him that the US would not attack China.

General Milli also pushed his deputies to pledge not to follow Donald Trump’s possible extreme orders, in particular on the use of nuclear weapons, following the defeat of the Republican president in elections, according to excerpts published today in the Washington Post and CNN. November 3, 2020

After the American intelligence services concluded that China considered a US attack imminent, Milli called General Li Zuocheng twice.

One was on October 30, shortly before the US presidential election, and the other on January 8, two days after Donald Trump’s supporters attacked Capitol Hill.

“General Lee, I want to assure you that the state of the United States is stable and everything will be in order,” Milli said, according to a book based on anonymous testimony from 200 US officials.

“We will not attack China or conduct military operations against China,” he insisted.

As described in Danger, Millie called her Chinese counterpart again two months later when the behavior of Donald Trump, furious with Joe Biden’s defeat in the presidential election, became increasingly erratic.

“This is fine. But democracy is sometimes difficult, ”he said.

In addition, Milli convened the General Staff of the Armed Forces to emphasize that if Donald Trump orders a nuclear strike, he must be informed first.

“Looking each other in the eyes, he asked all the officers gathered to confirm that they understood correctly” his orders, added Woodward and Costa, for whom the episode became an “oath”.

Milli also asked CIA Director Gina Haspel and Defense Intelligence Director General Paul Nakasone to monitor any promiscuous Donald Trump behavior.

“Some may think that Millie has overstepped his authority and over-empowered himself,” write the authors of Danger.

However, they continue, Milli was convinced that he was doing what was necessary “so that there is no historical rupture in the international order, an accidental war with China or other countries, and that nuclear weapons are not used,” they add.

In response to questions at the US General Staff, they refrained from commenting.

Read also: Trump’s faithful alternate tale of the Capitol Hill attack