US President Barack Obama’s pivot to Asia may bolster Taiwan’s security, but the nation must do more to defend itself, a Washington conference was told this week.
“Apathy kills,” US Naval War College strategy professor James Holmes said.
“The pivot’s capacity to dissuade or defeat China hinges on whether US Navy relief forces can reach the island’s [Taiwan’s] vicinity, do battle and prevail at a cost acceptable to the American state and society,” he said.
“This is an open question — but one that Taiwan’s armed forces can, and must, help answer in the affirmative,” Holmes told the conference on Taiwan and the US’ Pivot to Asia held at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
In the case of an attack by China, Taiwan must show a “vigorous hand” in its defense rather than passively awaiting rescue, he said.
“Otherwise, it may stand alone in its hour of need,” Holmes said.
He added that Taiwan must think of itself as a partner, as well as a beneficiary, of the US “strategic pirouette.”
Holmes said that Taipei’s performance is “suspect” in both military and diplomatic terms.
Defense budgets, he said, were a rough gauge of political resolve and they have dwindled from “already meager levels.”
Only by conspicuously upgrading its defenses, could Taiwan’s leadership help a US president justify the costs and hazards of ordering increasingly scarce forces into battle against “a peer competitor,” he said.
University of Miami professor June Teufel Dreyer said that although the overwhelming majority of Taiwanese had expressed a desire not to unify with China, the absorption of Taiwan into China “may be reaching a de facto if not a de jure tipping point, past which reversal is impossible.”
If this was the case, she said, it was difficult to see how the US could gain any advantage from incorporating Taiwan into a pivot that was aimed at constraining China.
At the same time, Taiwan’s military and intelligence bureaucracies had been infiltrated by Chinese operatives and it did not make sense to sell advanced weaponry “to a country that would transfer it to America’s most likely adversary,” she added.
Dreyer added that Taiwan’s current government seemed to favor gradual incorporation into China, whether formally or informally, and that would be disadvantageous to the US.
“Taiwan cannot count on the US to guarantee the security of a Taiwan whose administration seems to be encouraging its incorporation into China,” she said.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their
RSS