With US President Donald Trump signing into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, the US and Taiwan should conduct joint military exercises to counter China’s increasing pressure on Taiwan, a US academic said in an article published on Tuesday.
In the article published by the Foreign Policy Research Institute, June Teufel Dreyer, a professor of political science at the University of Miami and a senior fellow at the institute’s Asia Program, said that Beijing has adopted what might be called an “anaconda strategy” to force Taiwan to surrender.
The pace of the strategy includes diplomatic, economic and military efforts, as well as attempts to destabilize Taiwanese society from within, Dreyer said.
Although the US — which is bound by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to maintain the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait — has taken measures to show its concerns over China’s increasing pressure on Taiwan, including accusing the Chinese government of “Orwellian nonsense” for controlling how US airlines refer to Taiwan, US responses have been largely symbolic, Dreyer said.
“More needs to be done to counter the anaconda,” she said.
For instance, “the US Navy should regularly send ships, including aircraft carrier battle groups, through the Taiwan Strait; its air force should conduct patrols in the area. Joint military exercises between the US and Taiwan should become routine, with Taiwan invited to participate in the annual multinational Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises,” she wrote.
“For all of Beijing’s bravado about its determination to defend a sovereignty over Taiwan that it has never actually exercised, China will hesitate to attack the US military for fear of escalation into an uncontrollable confrontation,” she said.
“It could, however, punish Taiwan,” she wrote.
Chinese sources have warned of further actions, with Beijing’s foreign supporters urging Washington to refrain from doing anything that might anger China, Dreyer said.
US immobilism for fear of triggering a response plays exactly into the anaconda strategy — a gradual tightening that will go on, Dreyer said.
Touching on US-Taiwan relations, Dreyer said that although no high-profile visits or port calls have yet taken place, Taipei and Washington have signed an agreement to allow personnel at Taiwan’s research institutions to visit national defense facilities and laboratories in the US, thereby benefiting Taiwan’s ability to produce military vessels and aircraft.
According to the US Naval Institute’s Proceedings, Taiwan is to build submarines with the US’ help, she said.
Trump on Monday signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, which includes provisions supporting the strengthening of Taiwan’s armed forces.
Section 1259 of the act includes a statement that prohibits the US secretary of defense from involving China in any RIMPAC naval exercises until the secretary is able to certify to relevant congressional committees that China has ceased its land reclamation and related military activities for at least a four-year period.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash