China, in the meantime, sees its swelling ballistic and cruise missile forces as essential tools of coercion against Taiwan. Chinese leaders are determined to expand those forces despite the plaintive efforts of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to persuade China to reduce — or even to slow the growth of — the number of missiles targeting Taiwan. Taiwan’s lack of missile defense makes it essentially defenseless and leaves Taiwanese leaders with little capacity to resist Chinese threats.
In the grand scheme of things, the more than 1,300 missiles deployed across the Taiwan Strait are a small part of Beijing’s overall economic as well as military ability to force or coerce Taiwanese into unwilling decisions about their relationship with China. But virtually all other tools of Chinese coercion can be resisted for some time or involve protracted costs for Beijing. Offensive missile attacks on Taiwan are virtually cost-free (except for the sunk costs of the missiles themselves) and can harm Taiwan in a matter of days. Taiwan, the US and the rest of Asia’s democracies have a vital interest in building defenses against that threat.
Unless, of course, Americans, Taiwanese and other Asians are content with the idea of having China in charge.
John Tkacik is a senior research fellow in Asian studies at the Heritage Foundation.
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