A new security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands, Taiwan’s former diplomatic ally, has set off alarm bells in Canberra and Washington. The pact’s far-reaching implications for security in the Indo-Pacific region has crossed a “red line” for the US and Australia.
While answering questions from reporters on Tuesday last week, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said that the US would not rule out military action were China to establish a base in the Solomons.
Kritenbrink’s robust language demonstrates just how unhappy Washington is at the prospect of China’s military installation in the Pacific island nation.
This is because a base in the Solomon Islands would allow China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy surface ships to freely dock and resupply with ammunition, and PLA Navy nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines would be able to patrol coastal areas of the South Pacific at will, posing a significant security threat to the continental US and Australia.
While attending a memorial ceremony to mark Anzac Day on Monday last week, Australian Minister for Defence Peter Dutton said that an “arc of authoritarianism” was troubling the Indo-Pacific region, and that the only way Australia could preserve peace is to prepare for war.
The depth and breadth of China’s military modernization long ago exceeded what is required to resolve the “Taiwan problem.” The PLA’s long-range combat capability extends beyond the second island chain and is developing into a global force.
The PLA is continually modernizing its aircraft carrier fleet and arsenal of nuclear weapons, while also developing cross-domain combat capabilities in space and in digital realms. China is also building military bases around the globe, sowing anxiety in nearby countries and placing Western democracies on high alert.
The Pentagon’s 2019 China Military Power Report, issued to the US Congress in May that year, said that in addition to having deployed anti-ship cruise missiles and long-range surface-to-air missiles on the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), the PLA also has a military base in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, and was considering establishing another outpost in Pakistan.
The Washington Post also in 2019 published a report on a secretive Chinese military base in eastern Tajikistan. That country shares a border with Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and other central Asian nations bordering China. As a consequence, Tajikistan’s geostrategic importance cannot be overstated.
The US magazine National Interest published an article in February last year that raised additional concerns over the PLA’s activities in the arctic, and reported that China was considering deploying submarines in the Arctic Ocean.
All of these developments demonstrate that China’s military ambitions reach far further afield than simply the Asia-Pacific region. Beijing is getting its ducks in a row to effect an external expansion.
The strategic goal behind the PLA’s far-reaching construction of overseas military bases is to extend its long-range force projection capability to every corner of the globe, as Beijing seeks to obtain dominance in regional development.
However, China’s ambitions to establish a global network of military bases has not only led the US, UK, Japan, Australia and other nations to join forces to resist Chinese encroachment, but has also focused the international community’s attention on Taiwan’s geostrategic importance. It is a lynchpin not just of regional Indo-Pacific security, but global security interests.
This reality was borne out in a remark by British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Liz Truss during the annual Mansion House speech at the Lord Mayor’s Easter Banquet in London on Wednesday last week.
“NATO must have a global outlook, ready to tackle global threats,” Truss said. “We need to pre-empt threats in the Indo-Pacific, working with our allies like Japan and Australia to ensure the Pacific is protected, and we must ensure that democracies like Taiwan are able to defend themselves.”
Yao Chung-yuan is a professor and former deputy director of the Ministry of National Defense’s strategic planning department.
Translated by Edward Jones
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
For Taiwan, the ongoing US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets are a warning signal: When a major power stretches the boundaries of self-defense, smaller states feel the tremors first. Taiwan’s security rests on two pillars: US deterrence and the credibility of international law. The first deters coercion from China. The second legitimizes Taiwan’s place in the international community. One is material. The other is moral. Both are indispensable. Under the UN Charter, force is lawful only in response to an armed attack or with UN Security Council authorization. Even pre-emptive self-defense — long debated — requires a demonstrably imminent
Since being re-elected, US President Donald Trump has consistently taken concrete action to counter China and to safeguard the interests of the US and other democratic nations. The attacks on Iran, the earlier capture of deposed of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and efforts to remove Chinese influence from the Panama Canal all demonstrate that, as tensions with Beijing intensify, Washington has adopted a hardline stance aimed at weakening its power. Iran and Venezuela are important allies and major oil suppliers of China, and the US has effectively decapitated both. The US has continuously strengthened its military presence in the Philippines. Japanese Prime
RSS