The US should deepen and broaden its military relations with Taiwan, a conference on military growth in the Asia-Pacific region has been told.
Project 2049 Institute executive director Mark Stokes said that Taipei could play a bigger role in US defense policy and make a significant contribution to the Pentagon’s new Air Sea Battle strategy. As the US Department of Defense and the administration of US President Barack Obama moves to rebalance its forces in the Asia-Pacific region they should rebalance relations with Taiwan, Stokes said.
Addressing an American Enterprise Institute conference on “Arms racing in Asia? Who’s winning, who’s losing,” Stokes said Taiwan could “assist and contribute” to solving US challenges.
The Washington conference was aimed at assessing the implications of major military modernization efforts in Asia.
Stokes said that despite conflicts in the South China Sea, Taiwan remained the primary “planning focus” of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
“It is still at the center of the planning scenario that the PLA uses in order to shape their future force structure,” Stokes said.
As a result, he added, Taiwan should be central to the planning of future US force structure.
“It is not that the South China Sea is not important, but rocks and water, and even navigation pale in comparison to the lives of 23 million people,” he said.
Of all the societies in the Asia-Pacific region, none understands China like Taiwan, he said.
“If one wants to understand the thinking that goes on in Beijing, one needs to look no further than Taiwan,” Stokes said.
The US Department of Defense should consider sending students to Taiwan National Defense University, he said.
Stokes argued that Taiwan was one of the most innovative societies in the world, and that it is ideally placed to help the US to be more innovative and to reduce the cost of weapons systems.
Taiwan is also ideal as a “platform for situational awareness,” not just for military purposes, but also for disaster warning, climate change and for tracking objects in space, he said.
A lot of attention has been given to Chinese cyberespionage, and Taiwan remains Beijing’s first and its most intense target of cyberespionage, he said. Over the years Taiwan’s security services have accumulated great experience in dealing with the problem and they could provide considerable help to the US, he added.
Stokes also said that Taiwan faces “the most stressing military challenge in the world.”
“If Taiwan, working together with the US, can address and meet this most significant military challenge, then the odds are the US can meet such challenges all over the world,” he said.
Stokes said that Taiwan is a “core interest” of the US and is “fundamental to US interests in the region.”
“Deepening and broadening military relations with Taiwan need not complicate our relationship with China,” he said.
However, Beijing should understand that as long as military coercion remained a central part of its broader strategy to resolve political differences with Taiwan, it was in the best interests of Washington to intensify its military relations with Taipei, he said.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
Taiwan is gearing up to celebrate the New Year at events across the country, headlined by the annual countdown and Taipei 101 fireworks display at midnight. Many of the events are to be livesteamed online. See below for lineups and links: Taipei Taipei’s New Year’s Party 2026 is to begin at 7pm and run until 1am, with the theme “Sailing to the Future.” South Korean girl group KARA is headlining the concert at Taipei City Hall Plaza, with additional performances by Amber An (安心亞), Nick Chou (周湯豪), hip-hop trio Nine One One (玖壹壹), Bii (畢書盡), girl group Genblue (幻藍小熊) and more. The festivities are to
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS