TAIWAN IS HOPELESS! In Taiwan war game, few good options for U.S. to deter China.
Published at : November 01, 2021
In Taiwan war game, few good options for U.S. to deter China.
The United States has “few credible options” to respond if China were to seize a set of islands administered by Taiwan in the South China Sea, underscoring the need for Washington and Taipei to build deterrence “against limited Chinese aggression,” according to the results of a war game conducted recently by foreign policy experts in Washington and the Asia-Pacific region.
The scenario was examined by the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank, and detailed in a report published Tuesday. It supposes that Chinese forces invade the Pratas islands, capturing the 500 Taiwanese troops who are based there and establishing a military outpost.
It’s a theoretical dilemma for the Pentagon that “many China-watchers view as increasingly plausible” — and one that “reinforces the need for regular planning exercises between Taiwanese and U.S. personnel,” the report says.
The report comes at a moment of heightened tension between Washington and Beijing, with the United States opposing China’s military expansion in the region and China calling on the Pentagon to cut ties with Taiwan. The standoff has spotlighted the challenge U.S. commanders would face in responding to an incursion of the islands without provoking a full-blown war.
President Biden, speaking during a town hall event last week broadcast by CNN, said that “we have a commitment” to defend Taiwan, prompting the White House to issue a statement clarifying that “the U.S. defense relationship with Taiwan is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act.” Signed into law in 1979, it details an ambiguous policy in which the United States said it would be a matter of “grave concern” if Taiwan’s future was determined by “other than peaceful means.” It also promises to provide the island with defensive weapons, and states that it will maintain capacity to “resist any resort to force or forms of coercion” that would jeopardize security on Taiwan.
The United States has “few credible options” to respond if China were to seize a set of islands administered by Taiwan in the South China Sea, underscoring the need for Washington and Taipei to build deterrence “against limited Chinese aggression,” according to the results of a war game conducted recently by foreign policy experts in Washington and the Asia-Pacific region.
The scenario was examined by the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank, and detailed in a report published Tuesday. It supposes that Chinese forces invade the Pratas islands, capturing the 500 Taiwanese troops who are based there and establishing a military outpost.
It’s a theoretical dilemma for the Pentagon that “many China-watchers view as increasingly plausible” — and one that “reinforces the need for regular planning exercises between Taiwanese and U.S. personnel,” the report says.
The report comes at a moment of heightened tension between Washington and Beijing, with the United States opposing China’s military expansion in the region and China calling on the Pentagon to cut ties with Taiwan. The standoff has spotlighted the challenge U.S. commanders would face in responding to an incursion of the islands without provoking a full-blown war.
President Biden, speaking during a town hall event last week broadcast by CNN, said that “we have a commitment” to defend Taiwan, prompting the White House to issue a statement clarifying that “the U.S. defense relationship with Taiwan is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act.” Signed into law in 1979, it details an ambiguous policy in which the United States said it would be a matter of “grave concern” if Taiwan’s future was determined by “other than peaceful means.” It also promises to provide the island with defensive weapons, and states that it will maintain capacity to “resist any resort to force or forms of coercion” that would jeopardize security on Taiwan.
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