China believes that the US’ ballistic missile defense (BMD) policy is “emboldening those on Taiwan who want to formalize the island’s separation from China,” a US congressional report said.
It said that Beijing believes that its conventional missile deterrent against Taiwan is being undermined by US ballistic missile defense assets.
At the same time, Chinese officials and academics see Washington’s ballistic missile defense deployments as a threat and a danger to strategic stability, the report said.
The report, Ballistic Missile Defense in the Asia-Pacific Region, was sent this week US Congress members by the Congressional Research Service.
The modernization and growing numbers of ballistic missiles in the Asia-Pacific region poses a security challenge for the US and its allies, and is of “concern,” it said.
“The US has made BMD a central component of protection for forward-deployed US forces and extended deterrence for allied security,” the report said.
Configuration of sensors, command and control centers, and ballistic missile defense assets in the region has slowly evolved with contributions from treaty allies, primarily Japan, Australia and South Korea, the report said.
“China’s strategic missile forces, known as the Second Artillery, field conventionally armed ballistic missiles believed to be intended to deter Taiwan from formalizing its de facto separation from China,” the report said.
It says that almost all of China’s short-range ballistic missiles — numbering more than 1,000 — are deployed opposite Taiwan.
“Chinese military scholars have warned that US BMD programs, and particularly the sale of BMD systems to Taiwan, send wrong signals to the Taiwan independence forces,” the report said.
It said the implication is that these missile programs might give the Taiwanese a sense of greater security, causing some to ignore the Chinese missile threat and actively resist China’s efforts to unify with Taiwan.
“The US has been unsympathetic to this set of Chinese concerns, and it has sold Taiwan limited missile defense infrastructure,” the report said.
In the 1990s, the US sold Taiwan three Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC) missile defense units with PAC-2 Guidance Enhanced Missiles.
Additional sales of PAC-3 systems were made to Taiwan in 2008 and 2010.
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