US Navy intelligence director James Fanell fears China could blockade Australia within 25 years

China could eventually blockade Australia by sea within 25 years unless the Communist Party power’s territorial aggression is contained, a US intelligence expert says.

Taiwan, a democracy, has been an autonomous nation since 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist forces fled mainland China following a four-year civil war.

Under authoritarian President Xi Jinping, China has been provocatively approaching Taiwanese airspace as part of a practice run of invading the island nation and eventually controlling it.

Military success there could potentially embolden China to assert more control over other nations in the South China Sea like the Philippines and dominate a major global shipping route.

Scroll down for video 

Unless its territorial aggression was contained Captain James Fanell, a former director of intelligence for the United States Navy’s Pacific Fleet, said the People’s Republic of China could eventually block sea routes in and out of Australia, cutting it off from major trading partners Japan and South Korea.

‘You’re in a dogfight right now economically with the PRC,’ he told Sky News.

‘They’re coming after Australia trying to shut you down economically.

‘If they have this ability to be able to freely operate their naval forces outside in Taiwan and into the Philippine Sea, there’s a real possibility within the scope of 25 years, China could if they wanted to, isolate and blockade Australia.’

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s executive director Peter Jennings said China was likely to provoke a confrontation with Taiwan in coming weeks to test incoming US President Joe Biden, who is being sworn in on Thursday Australian time.

‘This gives the Chinese Communist leader Xi Jinping an opportunity to see how far can he push his luck and I would fully expect that we’ll see some sort of crisis along the Taiwan Strait in the next few weeks,’ he said. 

China last year passed new national security laws covering Hong Kong, which contravened a 1984 UK-Sino agreement stipulating the former British colony would be autonomous for 50 years after the 1997 handover.

The PRC now has Taiwan in its sights, having long considered the democratic nation to be part of China. 

Australia and the US have diplomatically observed a one-China policy since they both formalised ties with the Communist Party regime during the 1970s.

Nonetheless, they support Taiwan remaining autonomous even if they don’t formally have diplomatic relations with this island nation of 23.6million people. 

Liberal senator Jim Molan, a former Army major general, fears a war over Taiwan within a decade between the United States and China, would pitch Australia’s biggest defence ally against its biggest trading partner. 

The US National Security Council last week published a declassified document from 2018, made public 30 years earlier than usual, which suggested the US could come to Taiwan’s aid in the event of a Chinese invasion.

Outgoing President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien released a statement, titled A Free and Open Indo Pacific, which implied the US would use military force to protect smaller nations from Chinese aggression.

‘A free and open Indo-Pacific depends on robust American leadership,’ he said.

‘The United States has a long history of fighting back against repressive regimes on behalf of those who value freedom and openness. 

‘As the world’s largest economy, with the strongest military and a vibrant democracy, it is incumbent on the United States to lead from the front.’