News24 Defence Analyst Peter Jennings says there is an “awful lot” of joint military planning going on "beneath the surface” between the US and Australia in preparation for a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “I can tell you that the US sees Australia as a very important platform from which it will want to be able to operate its forces in a war over Taiwan,” Mr Jennings told News24 host Jaimee Rogers. “I believe that a war would very quickly expand and involve the Philippines and Japan, and a number of other countries, and inevitably Australia will be involved as well.”