The US should expand its military-to-military ties with Taiwan to better deter China from launching an attack against the nation, a former Pentagon analyst said.
“Now is the perfect time for the US to deepen cooperation with its Pacific allies,” American Enterprise Institute (AEI) research fellow Phillip Lohaus said.
In an article published on the AEI Web site and in US News & World Report, Lohaus said that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is far less risk-averse than her predecessors when it comes to relations with China, “marking an opportunity for the US to expand its ties with Taipei.”
“Allies in other parts of Asia are also increasingly willing to work together and with the US to curtail the Chinese threat,” he said.
Lohaus said that to truly deter China, the US would need to reaffirm its commitment to its regional allies, fill in their capability gaps and encourage more cooperation among them.
The US will need to maintain or help support a more persistent allied and partner presence, not just at sea, but also in the air, on the ground and, critically, in cyberspace and outer space, he said.
“The US Congress should also ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as its strategic benefits far outweigh the costs that the agreement might incur,” Lohaus wrote.
He said there are indications that the administration of US President Barack Obama is “finally awakening” to the important role that it plays in establishing the rules of the road in the Pacific and the US’ allies are increasingly prepared to push back on Beijing’s assertiveness.
Lohaus said it remains to be seen if Obama’s current efforts are too little too late or “more importantly, whether presumptive presidential nominees Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will seize the current momentum in Asian capitals to limit China’s advances.”
He said that China’s alarming military modernization, its increased assertiveness in the East and South China Seas and the way it is wearing down the populations of its adversaries are parts of an incremental strategy to expand control.
Lohaus said that the US response to Chinese provocations has been insufficient and the White House position toward China has been one of increased cooperation.
“The implementation of the pivot has hardly curtailed Chinese aggression — if anything its anemic implementation may have worsened the situation,” Lohaus said.
“Deterring China from acting counter to US interests will take more than a pivot, it will take persistence and presence in the maritime domain,” he added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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