Bolstering Taiwan’s defenses is an urgent task and essential to deterring the threat of invasion by China, the Pentagon’s top official for Asia said on Wednesday, adding that US partners were stepping up their military presence in the region.
Tensions between Taiwan and China have escalated in the past few months as Beijing increases the pressure with repeated air missions over the Taiwan Strait.
“Without question, bolstering Taiwan’s self-defenses is an urgent task and an essential feature of deterrence,” US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner told a US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing.
Photo: AFP
Ratner added that China’s air and maritime campaigns around Taiwan were “intentionally provocative” and increased the likelihood of miscalculation between armed forces in the Indo-Pacific region.
“They put the prosperity and security of the region at risk, and are part of a pattern of PRC military coercion and aggression against other US allies and partners in the region, including India, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam,” Ratner said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
“We are seeing countries stepping up their military presence in the region and their willingness to support deterrence in a way that we haven’t before,” he said, mentioning joint military activities with Canada, Britain and Japan.
Asked what he saw as the greatest risk to Taiwan, Ratner said: “The China challenge is a today problem, a tomorrow problem, a 2027 problem, a 2030 problem, a 2040 problem and beyond.’
“I don’t think there is a date we ought to pick on the calendar and we ought to make sure that we’re sustaining deterrence from today,” he added.
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink, who was also at the committee hearing, said that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s “bullying behavior” directed at Taiwan was concerning and destabilizing, and risked undermining peace and stability in the region.
Kritenbrink said he believed these actions posed a risk of miscalculation that could harm the global economy.
“In response, the US has and will continue to make available to Taiwan the defense articles and services necessary to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act,” he said, citing as an example the more than US$32 billion in arms sold to Taiwan since 2009.
Arms sales alone are not enough, as the US also encourages Taiwan to prioritize asymmetric capabilities that complicate China’s planning and coercion, he said.
The US is “firmly committed to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, where we have an enduring national interest,” he said, adding that Washington would continue to oppose unilateral changes to the “status quo.”
Additional reporting by CNA
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he
‘NARWHAL’: The indigenous submarine completed its harbor acceptance test recently and is now under heavy guard as it undergoes tests in open waters, a source said The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, yesterday began sea trials, sailing out of the Port of Kaohsiung, a military source said. Also known as the “Narwhal,” the vessel departed from CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard at about 8am, where it had been docked. More than 10 technicians and military personnel were on deck, with several others standing atop the sail. After recently completing its harbor acceptance test, the vessel has started a series of sea-based trials, including tests of its propulsion and navigational systems, while partially surfaced, the source said. The Hai Kun underwent tests in the port from
RSS