Now that the Chinese Communist Party's congress is over and President Xi Jinping is installed in his third term of power, making him "truly an emperor," Russian President Vladimir Putin has a free hand with his "Armageddon general" to make matters much worse in Ukraine, U.S. Air Force Brigadier Gen.(ret.) Blaine Holt said on Newsmax Sunday.
"It's really going to be brutal there," Holt, a Newsmax contributor, told, "Wake Up America." "I think we're going to start seeing cities like Lviv and Kyiv come into the target zone. We're learning all kinds of things on the ground in Kherson that as the collaborators and the Russians leave and they leave Ukrainians behind."
Xi's installation will also mean serious challenges for the United States, Holt added.
"We talk about this race for tech," he said. "Not only have the Chinese infiltrated us, but if you look at this new chips bill that we just signed it seems on its surface that we're going to lock down our intellectual property."
But that also raises questions about whether the bill gives Xi more reason to go after Taiwan, which has the world's most advanced chip manufacturer, and "he believes it's his," said Holt.
Xi is also already projecting power, so "we're going to see China in a very different way than we've seen them in the last 10 years," said Holt. "He has wiped any of the rivals he has and he got rid of all the elders."
Saturday, Xi retired key party leaders from the top ruling party, including when former top leader Hu Jintao was "forcibly removed" from the congress, Holt pointed out.
Sunday, the day after the congress closed, Xi announced six new members of the Politburo standing committee, which is China's top ruling body. The lineup is now filled with his loyalists, with him concentrating power.
Xi also on Sunday revealed the 24-member Politburo's lineup, which does not include any women for the first time in at least 25 years.
Holt said that when Xi ordered Hu from the room, "that was a message to the Chinese and that was a message to all of us."
The retired general said Xi's moves are also proof that the "clock is on" for China to take advantage of American weakness in the two years left of President Joe Biden's first term.
"What we need to do is start sending messages back the other way that we're getting our house in order in advance of that," said Holt. "We need to start reviewing whether it is appropriate for the Chinese to compete with us by owning 200,000 acres of our own farmland. We need to start challenging every single avenue of involvement with the Chinese. Do you want to go be the world's superpower? You're not going to do it with our help. And we need to take that very seriously and we can do it now. We should be preparing to do it now. American strength will help us in this dangerous world we're living in."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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