US to step in if PLA strikes: ex-Japan officerBy Wu Che-yu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe US would intervene militarily if China attacked Taiwan, retired Japanese lieutenant general Hirotaka Yamashita said. Yamashita made the remarks in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) on Friday. He is in Taiwan to promote his book on Taiwan Strait security. Retired Japanese lieutenant general Hirotaka Yamashita gestures in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) in Taipei on Friday. To invade Taiwan, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) must deploy a massive number of troops across the Taiwan Strait, exposing vulnerable troop transport ships to smaller asymmetric weapons systems, he said.
