The government must do a better job of explaining that its policy of engaging with China does not eliminate the need to provide the nation with an effective defense, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) executive Michael Mazza said.
“Given China’s assertive actions in the East and South China seas and the more forceful and ambitious leadership of China’s new president, Xi Jinping [習近平], addressing this shortcoming is more urgent than ever,” Mazza said in a 16-page study published by AEI this week.
The specialist in Asia-Pacific defense policy said that to please Washington and to claim success in managing cross-strait relations, the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) must show that those relations are better than they have ever been.
“However, [that] has not lessened the actual military threat posed by mainland China to Taiwan,” he added.
Mazza says that under the administration of US President Barack Obama, US-China ties have become — at the expense of Taiwan’s defensive needs — an increasingly central factor in decisions on US arms sales to the nation.
“The Obama administration’s decision to upgrade Taiwan’s F-16s, while refusing to discuss new jets, reflected a ‘split-the-baby’ calculus,” Mazza said.
“Washington would do the minimum for Taiwan while keeping China happy — and this sets a troubling precedent for future arms sales,” he added.
Not only has the arms sales process “largely broken down,” but Taiwanese and US defense establishments also disagree over the optimal strategy for Taipei to pursue, and thus over what arms the nation needs most, Mazza said.
He said that the US Department of Defense has “apparently endorsed” a strategy that calls for Taiwan to abandon expensive conventional capabilities, such as fighters and submarines, in favor of a ground-based, survivable, relatively inexpensive defensive force.
This force would focus on repelling an invasion and concentrate on homeland defense. It would not launch any attacks of its own and would achieve deterrence by demonstrating to China that Taiwan would be a “bitter pill to swallow,” Mazza said.
“What Taiwan requires is a highly skilled, innovative, high-tech force, but it is questionable whether Taiwan can successfully create this defense force given resource and manpower constraints and shortcomings in US-Taiwan defense cooperation,” Mazza said.
He said that although Ma has consistently claimed a need for Taiwan to maintain a strong defense, his cross-strait policies make it difficult to sustain public support for more defense spending.
“Ma has been eager to tout the successes of his policies, but a side effect has been for his administration to underemphasize those aspects of Beijing’s policies that continue to threaten Taiwan,” he said.
By telling Taiwanese that all is “going swimmingly” in cross-strait relations, Ma may well be weakening his own calls for a strong military deterrent, Mazza said.
At the same time, Mazza said, China’s East China Sea air defense identification zone and its behavior in the South China Sea amount to “an outright challenge to freedom of navigation through the seas and skies on which Taiwan depends for its economic vitality.”
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS