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US-China relations
ChinaMilitary

US Intelligence Community needs upgrade to stop Beijing forcibly taking Taiwan: report

‘The side that sees first decides first, and the one that acts first will have the advantage’: retired US Army lieutenant-general writes

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A proposal written by Scott Berrier, a retired US Army lieutenant-general, says how US intelligence is collected, analysed and shared must be overhauled so the US can deter Beijing from capturing Taiwan. Photo: Shutterstock
Enoch Wong
A Washington-based think tank has proposed a major overhaul of the US Intelligence Community’s early-warning abilities to deter the People’s Liberation Army from forcibly taking Taiwan.

The proposal written by Scott Berrier, a retired US Army lieutenant-general, and published on Thursday by the Atlantic Council, calls for a real-time, integrated intelligence system that spans all domains – space, cyber, air, sea and land.

“The side that sees first decides first, and the one that acts first will have the advantage,” Berrier said in the brief, stressing the need for speed and integration in modern warfare.

The proposal suggests a fundamental shift in how intelligence is collected, analysed and shared, and for the 18 independent agencies within the community to “overcome silos that hinder national security”.

Those agencies include the intelligence arms of each branch of the US military as well as bodies such as the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency, Treasury and Department of Energy.

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Berrier, who is a senior fellow at the think tank’s Indo-Pacific Security Initiative, highlighted the critical need for a unified, agile approach to intelligence that used advanced technologies such as AI to enable faster, more accurate decision-making.
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