Did the US admiral speak out of turn on China?

MY FULL VERSION OF TIMES STORY TODAY: China could be preparing to bring forward plans to invade Taiwan by 2027, America’s top commander in the region has warned. Beijing has a stated policy that it intends to reunite Taiwan with mainland China and reserves the right to use military force if necessary. Admiral Philip Davidson, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, told the Senate armed services committee that he feared Beijing’s increasing aggressiveness in the region suggested an invasion could take place in the next six years. “I worry that they’re accelerating their ambitions to supplant the United States and our leadership in the rules-based international order which they’ve long said they want to do by 2050,” he said. “I’m worried about them moving that target closer. Taiwan is clearly one of their ambitions before then and I think the threat is manifest during this decade, in fact in the next six years,” the admiral said. Admiral Davidson is due soon to retire and his warning appeared to be a signal to his nominated successor, Admiral John Aquilino, that the increasing vulnerability of Taiwan is likely to be his priority concern. He pointed to several worrying indicators of Beijing’s strategy on Taiwan’s “reunification”: the numbers of ships, aircraft and missiles China had “put in the field”, the “line of actual control” the Chinese military had imposed in the South China Sea and East China Sea, and the attacks on democracy in Hong Kong. Taiwan broke away from mainland communist China in 1949 and set up as a self-governing island . Under the so-called “strategic ambiguity” policy, the US does not formally recognise Taiwan as an independent state. Washington has supported a long-established “one China policy”. However, the US retains strong informal ties and sells arms to the Taipei government to help defend against Chinese aggression. Admiral Davidson said that more than 40 years of strategic ambiguity “had helped keep Taiwan in its current status”. It was vital, he said, that the US continued with “consistent and persistent arms sales” to help Taiwan bolster its defensive capabilities. The US assists Taiwan during its annual military exercises by providing observers to advise on defensive strategies. The admiral’s comments came after China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, warned President Biden against giving any support for Taiwan’s independence. “The one China principle is the foundation of the US-China relationship,” he said three days ago. He described it as an “insurmountable red line”, warning that there was “no room for concession or compromise on Taiwan”.