March 18, 2021-- In advance of a flurry of meetings between U.S. officials and leaders of Asian nations, including top foreign policy officials of China, Yahoo News published on March 10 on the balance of forces in the Indo-Pacific region. U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, the deputy chief of staff for strategy, integration and requirements, revealed that recent war games demonstrate that the balance of power is shifting, with China emerging as a serious threat to U.S. interests. By 2018, he said, the "trend in our war games [with China] was not just that we were losing, but we were losing faster." If the Chinese launch an attack on Taiwan, he added, "...we know what is going to happen. The definitive answer if the U.S. military doesn't change course is that we're going to lose fast. In that case, an American president would likely be presented with almost a fait accompli," that Taiwan's independent status would be nullified, and it would be fully incorporated into the People's Republic of China. The war games that Hinote referred to involved a scenario in which the Chinese attack U.S. positions in the Pacific and Taiwan, under the guise of military exercises, ten years from now. His warning echoed that of Admiral Philip Davidson, chief of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, who told Congress that, as the military balance in the Indo-Pacific "is becoming more unfavorable for the United States and our allies...we are accumulating risk that may embolden China to unilaterally change the status quo before our forces may be able to deliver an effective response." Davidson's timetable is faster than Hinote's -- he warned that China could invade Taiwan in six years. He insisted that it is urgent that defense spending on U.S. forces in the region be increased immediately, which was warmly received by War Hawks from both parties.