Leaked audio from what is claimed to be a top-secret meeting of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has exposed its plans to begin mobilisation efforts to prepare for war with Taiwan.
The 57-minute audio clip was allegedly recorded during a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee of Guangdong on May 14.
Media network Lude Media published the audio and reports it's the first recording from a "top secret military meeting" in China to be ever released to the public.
Lude Media claims the audio was leaked from senior members of the Chinese Communist Party military "who risked their own lives to expose the evil plan of Xi Jinping".
The leaked audio uncovers China's military plans for the Taiwan Strait, South China Sea, East China, and First Island Chain.
English translations of the discussions reveal the purpose of the PLA meeting was to instruct mobilisation orders to Guangdong and clarify instructions from "peacetime to wartime transition".
Those attending the meeting were told all Government levels in the province must change their priority from economic development to "ensuring strategic victory".
"We won't hesitate to start a war, crush Taiwan's independence and strong enemies' plots, and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," one speaker is quoted as saying in an English translation.
The translated transcript says Guangdong province has been tasked with activating 140,000 military personnel, 953 ships, and 1,653 units of "unmanned equipment".
Other resources to be requisitioned include 20 airports, six repair and shipbuilding yards, and 14 emergency transfer centres as well as "grain depots, hospitals, blood stations, oil depots, and gas stations", according to the transcript.
United States-based activist Jennifer Zeng told Japan Forward, an English-language news and opinion site by Sankei Shimbun, one of Japan's top newspapers, she couldn't "independently verify or falsify this audio file" but said the English transcript provided is a "truthful translation of the Chinese".
Since the leak of the audio file, some have expressed scepticism that it could be doctored, fake, or even released intentionally by the PRC as a part of a disinformation campaign.
President of the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy Jaydeva Ranade has written about the leak and says the timing is interesting.
"It is unclear whether the video was deliberately 'leaked' by the Chinese as part of psywar, or it was an unauthorised recording of the meeting by a disgruntled PLA officer.
"It will nonetheless certainly be carefully analysed by China's neighbours and competitors," he added.
University of Miami political science professor and renowned expert in Chinese politics June Teufel Dreyer told Japan Forward the details discussed in the meeting could be "hypothetical contingency plans".
"Note they don't mention a timetable."
Zeng said she searched high and low in an attempt to compare the voices in the audio clip, to the people mentioned - but had no luck.
"I tried to find [such recordings] but didn't find any. All news reports about those attending a [similar] meeting were read out by a news anchor and didn't have their voices."
Former PLA Navy Commander Yao Cheng said in a 20-minute Youtube video that the audio clip is fake, but Zeng disagrees.
"I listened to his arguments, but was not convinced by him."
Retired US Army Colonel Archie Miyamoto told Japan Foward the danger "may be real".
"Or it could be just a ploy to get the people in China's minds off the worsening economic problems in China."
He added following the world's reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine it would be "very impractical" to start an invasion of Taiwan.
"On the other hand, they (China) may be thinking the US is in such an internal turmoil that the US is falling apart and would be unable to react to an invasion of Taiwan. There is some truth to that. Japan alone can't save Taiwan."
