A new policy analysis from the Washington-based Wilson Center concludes that Taiwan should not seek “big-ticket military systems” such as advanced combat aircraft and submarines from the US.
Instead, the analysis says, Taiwan should be funding and building much lower-profile, but “more useful” hardening, redundancy and mobility options for its essential defense and command-and-control capabilities.
“As Taiwan does that, the US must be willing to provide the capabilities Taipei needs, including cruise missiles and air defense missiles,” retired US foreign service officer David Keegan says.
Keegan, the author of the Wilson Center policy analysis, served as deputy director of the American Institute in Taiwan and as director of the Office of Taiwan Policy in the US Department of State.
“Taiwan and the US must take a cold look at how to deter and if necessary respond to PRC [People’s Republic of China] coercion,” Keegan says. “We must beware of the PRC’s recent record of coercive incrementalism along its maritime periphery.”
“Our military capabilities and Taiwan’s must provide realistic options to respond effectively at each level of coercive action,” Keegan says.
Titled Taiwan Relations Act: Time for a Change? the analysis is part of the Wilson Center’s Policy Brief Series.
Taiwan is no longer an isolated friction in the US-China relationship, but an integral element in China’s broader military assertiveness along its eastern maritime border, Keegan says.
“This convergence of issues will force the US to fundamentally rethink how we manage the Taiwan issue,” he says.
Growing Chinese economic and military power will not be employed simply to achieve national unification, but to assert more broadly China’s historical rights and redress what it sees as historic inequities along its maritime periphery, Keegan says.
“The very real benefits of stable economic partnerships with Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN nations may not be sufficient to curb these ambitions,” he says.
“No longer is China’s insistence on reunification a threat to Taiwan alone,” Keegan says.
The key, he says, is to integrate Taiwan more clearly into overall US China policy — the US-Taiwan relationship must be unofficial, but it must not be second-rate.
Keegan says Washington should improve the frequency of US policy dialogues with leaders of both main Taiwanese parties.
“We often say we do not take sides in foreign elections, that we do not pick winners and losers,” Keegan says.
Senior policy officials in Washington need to convey that convincingly to both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan, Keegan says.
Finally, Keegan says the US should not be discussing abandonment, “the ill-conceived notion that the PRC will reward the US for halting arms sales to Taipei and will show restraint in expanding its military capability to coerce Taiwan.”
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS