Beyond this it is necessary for Taiwan and the US to cooperate to ensure that Taiwan's air, naval and land forces can survive a PLA missile barrage. For Taiwan's part this will require a much larger investment in passive defenses like better shelters for aircraft, command posts and even combat ships. On Washington's part, this requires a willingness to sell easily dispersible aircraft, like the vertical take-off variant of the future Joint Strike Fighter and the ultimate stealth combat ship: submarines.
It is marginally useful that the PRC chose to issue its threatening white paper during the run-up to the March 18 election instead of lobbing missiles as it did in 1996. But the white paper that the PRC intends to pull Taipei into negotiations with also signals that the China-Taiwan arms race will only increase its centrality in the cross-strait dynamic.
Richard Fisher is a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, DC.
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