Taiwan should bolster its national defense self-sufficiency and broaden global alliances to counter China’s ambitions, a US-based analyst said in Taipei yesterday.
Miles Yu (余茂春), director of the China Center at the Washington-based Hudson Institute and senior China policy and planning adviser to former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo during the administration of former US president Donald Trump, made the comment at a talk organized by Taiwan Thinktank and the Formosa Republican Association at the GIS Taipei Tech Convention Center.
Taiwan has made important contributions to democracy with its efficient handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the presidential election last month, which offered lessons for the world, Yu said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“Taiwan’s global influence is far greater than its geographical size and population would suggest,” he added.
Trump’s administration oversaw a “revolutionary change” in US policy, which was the recognition that China is the greatest threat to the US and the international system, and it has been largely followed and reinforced by US President Joe Biden, he said.
“China’s strategic aim is clear and its threat is not merely regional, but global,” he added.
As Beijing seeks to create economic and technological dependencies on China around the world, the US is countering its influence by forming a global coalition of democracies, in which Taiwan has a key role, he said.
Taiwan should not expect fundamental changes to US policy toward cross-strait relations, which is to oppose any attempt to use force to change the “status quo,” he said.
This policy has been in place since 1950, when then-US president Harry Truman dispatched the US Navy’s 7th Fleet to protect Taiwan in response to the outbreak of the Korean War, he said.
However, Taiwan should improve its military capabilities, as the US has the most trust in self-reliant allies that can fend for themselves, Yu said, citing Israel as an example.
A return of Trump to the White House would have no impact on Taiwan-US relations, he added.
The US government is sure to emphasize the importance of peace and stability across the strait regardless of whether the Democratic or Republican party is in power, with the only difference being the method utilized in pursuit of that goal, he said.
Biden, if re-elected, would continue to conduct talks with Beijing, demanding that it renounce using force to alter the “status quo,” while Trump might resort to more forceful means, he said.
“The presidents use different methods to accomplish their aims, but that does not change China’s being the No. 1 threat to the US,” Yu said.
Prospect Foundation chief executive officer Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) said that the US has pivoted from its former strategy of seeking to incorporate Beijing into a participant of the global system since Trump defined China as a “status quo-changing power.”
Washington formulated the Indo-Pacific strategy to signal a shift of focus to sea and maritime states from a previous land focus, with many countries in the region to follow suit, Lai said.
Retired major general Yu Tsung-chi (余宗基), an adviser to the Formosa Republican Association, said that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) rejection of the cross-strait “status quo” has fundamentally disrupted the dynamic equilibrium that had maintained peace.
Creating policy toward ensuring China would not invade Taiwan would be illogical, as unification is Beijing’s stated goal, he said, adding that a logical policy would be geared toward ensuring that Taiwan can successfully resist an invasion.
The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act might need to be modified, as it does not include Taiwan’s outlying islands under its protection, nor did it anticipate the “gray zone” tactics of Beijing, he said.
A new strategy for protecting security across the strait would entail tit-for-tat consequences for Beijing’s actions, including condemnations and transfers of high-tech arms to Taiwan, Yu Tsung-chi added.
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