A former US national security adviser on Wednesday called for a new “candid dialogue” between the US and China over Taiwan.
Stephen Hadley, national security adviser to former US president George W. Bush during his second term in the White House, said it was his hope that such a dialogue would over time convince Beijing that the solution to the problem of US arms sales to Taiwan was “in China’s own hands.”
Answering questions following a lecture called “The Challenges and Opportunities of US Policy in Asia” at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, Hadley said that China needed to pull back and dismantle the missiles it has aimed at Taiwan.
It would improve relations across the Taiwan Strait and “reassure Taiwan about China’s intentions,” he said.
That in turn, he said, would remove the need for US arms sales.
“Until China understands this is the right course for everyone, the United States needs to stand by Taiwan,” he said.
Hadley was speaking at the 14th annual Lee Byung-chull lecture on international affairs to mark the birth anniversary of the founder of the Samsung group.
“Our historical experience is that nations that share our values are our best partners — because common values beget common interests, and common interests are the basis for making common cause in addressing global challenges,” Hadley said.
One of the great successes of US policy after World War II was to help Japan and South Korea build stable and prosperous societies based on democratic values and free market principles, he said.
“The United States similarly needs to work closely with its other friends and allies — including Australia, the Philippines, New Zealand and Singapore — and continue its close friendship with the people of Taiwan,” he said.
It was no accident, he said, that the spread of freedom and democracy in Asia over the last half of the 20th century was accompanied by nearly unprecedented prosperity and stability.
“South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have led the way,” Hadley said.
While this could be a period of “enormous promise,” it could instead be a period of “peril” in US-China relations, he said.
“There is a growing list of questions in many quarters about how China will use its dramatically increasing economic, military and diplomatic power,” Hadley said.
“China is deploying military capabilities — fighter aircraft, missiles and submarines — that could deny US military forces access to the international waters off China’s coast. At least initially, these capabilities seem designed to give China the option to act militarily against Taiwan without US interference, should it decide to do so, and to give China the potential to exercise exclusive control over the South China Sea,” he said.
Hadley said the US and China needed to increase transparency and resume military cooperation.
“That means military-to-military exchanges, ‘hot lines’ and other mechanisms to avoid confrontation, joint training exercises and joint humanitarian assistance operations in third countries,” he said. “As a further step, China should begin to move back and dismantle the missiles it has deployed adjacent to the Taiwan Strait.”
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