The government must do a better job of explaining that its policy of engaging with China does not eliminate the need to provide the nation with an effective defense, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) executive Michael Mazza said.
“Given China’s assertive actions in the East and South China seas and the more forceful and ambitious leadership of China’s new president, Xi Jinping [習近平], addressing this shortcoming is more urgent than ever,” Mazza said in a 16-page study published by AEI this week.
The specialist in Asia-Pacific defense policy said that to please Washington and to claim success in managing cross-strait relations, the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) must show that those relations are better than they have ever been.
“However, [that] has not lessened the actual military threat posed by mainland China to Taiwan,” he added.
Mazza says that under the administration of US President Barack Obama, US-China ties have become — at the expense of Taiwan’s defensive needs — an increasingly central factor in decisions on US arms sales to the nation.
“The Obama administration’s decision to upgrade Taiwan’s F-16s, while refusing to discuss new jets, reflected a ‘split-the-baby’ calculus,” Mazza said.
“Washington would do the minimum for Taiwan while keeping China happy — and this sets a troubling precedent for future arms sales,” he added.
Not only has the arms sales process “largely broken down,” but Taiwanese and US defense establishments also disagree over the optimal strategy for Taipei to pursue, and thus over what arms the nation needs most, Mazza said.
He said that the US Department of Defense has “apparently endorsed” a strategy that calls for Taiwan to abandon expensive conventional capabilities, such as fighters and submarines, in favor of a ground-based, survivable, relatively inexpensive defensive force.
This force would focus on repelling an invasion and concentrate on homeland defense. It would not launch any attacks of its own and would achieve deterrence by demonstrating to China that Taiwan would be a “bitter pill to swallow,” Mazza said.
“What Taiwan requires is a highly skilled, innovative, high-tech force, but it is questionable whether Taiwan can successfully create this defense force given resource and manpower constraints and shortcomings in US-Taiwan defense cooperation,” Mazza said.
He said that although Ma has consistently claimed a need for Taiwan to maintain a strong defense, his cross-strait policies make it difficult to sustain public support for more defense spending.
“Ma has been eager to tout the successes of his policies, but a side effect has been for his administration to underemphasize those aspects of Beijing’s policies that continue to threaten Taiwan,” he said.
By telling Taiwanese that all is “going swimmingly” in cross-strait relations, Ma may well be weakening his own calls for a strong military deterrent, Mazza said.
At the same time, Mazza said, China’s East China Sea air defense identification zone and its behavior in the South China Sea amount to “an outright challenge to freedom of navigation through the seas and skies on which Taiwan depends for its economic vitality.”
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about