Unfortunately, Taipei has few other potential suppliers: Most countries favor China. Over the last decade France, Germany, and Israel have all terminated weapons shipments to Taipei. The latter now supplies Beijing.
The US should sell the weapons necessary for Taiwan to maintain a robust military. Not to spite China, but to allow Washington to step back from, not further into, the dispute.
A confrontation with China, hinted at during the surveillance plane contretemps, would be horrific. Should deterrence fail -- and Beijing is never likely to take seriously Washington's threats over what to Beijing appear to be peripheral US interests -- the US could end up losing Los Angeles to save Taipei.
Arming Taiwan would allow Washington to steer clear. Rather than issue entangling security guarantees, Washington would leave Taipei with both the means and the responsibility for its own defense. The only conceivable justification for trimming weapons sales would be if Beijing agreed to renounce the use of force against Taiwan and adjusted its force deployments and enhancements accordingly. And only if doing so did not prejudice Taiwan should Beijing later reverse course.
Good relations with China are important; contact with the West offers the best hope for further reform. But US policy toward Taiwan should not be drafted in Beijing. Taiwan is an important friend. But the US should not risk trading Los Angeles for Taipei.
In short, it is in the US' interest to provide the Taiwanese with the means to defend themselves. And then step back from any potential military contest.
Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and a former special assistant to former US president Ronald Reagan.
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