Winter 2019—Toughening Taiwan: A Valid And Worthwhile Exercise Of America’s Protective Power

During the eight years of the Obama administration, one of the great causes of worry to me concerning the way the forty-fourth president of the United States oversaw the erosion of American martial strength on the world stage concerned President Barack Obama’s almost non-existent consideration of our allies’ security maintenance interests. Whether it was his abusive and dismissive relationship with Israel, his nonchalant disinterest and abandonment of allied regimes in Egypt and Iraq, or his refusal to provide strategic defense systems to the nations of Eastern Europe currently cowering in the face of Russian aggression, President Obama and his administration always seemed hell-bent on ignoring what was in the best interests of the national security needs of America’s allies and partners around the world. Evidently, the Obama administration never succeeded in grasping the reality that having strong proven allies fully equipped and prepared with the tools necessary for their own national defense is a key ingredient in maintaining the strength and security of the American homeland.

In general, I have been pretty pleased with the Trump administration on this count. While foreign policy experts on the left have derided President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy as old-fashioned, outdated, and fundamentally at odds with the allegedly greater well-being of the international community, nothing could be further from the truth. Somehow, leftists seem to believe that “America First” means “America First and Only,” but this simply is not the case. An “America First” foreign policy does not preclude paying proper attention to the valid national security interests of allied powers, and despite what many in the left-wing media want us to believe, President Trump and his foreign policy team seem to understand this general principle. The Trump White House and the Republicans in Congress seem to have maintained the proper perspective over the last two or three years: that while the United States government’s primary mission is to look first and foremost to our own country’s defense, doing so should not stop the federal government from also doing what it can to maintain the national security interests of other countries as well—especially if those countries are proven U.S. allies with a long track record of standing against our country’s most determined strategic foes.

In this blog post, it is my intention to take a short look at the country of Taiwan as an example of a country allied to the United States possessing a strong record of democracy and capitalism, an allied nation worth defending. I also wish to show that because the People's Republic of China is the Asia-Pacific region's number one threat to American and allied interests in the region, it is now more important than ever for the U.S. government to keep Taiwan properly armed with its self-defense capabilities sufficiently maintained after years of Obama-era negligence.

Ever since the late 1990s, the small island nation of Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China, has successfully maintained one of the Asia-Pacific region’s most promising democratic societies. Though it has taken them many years to permanently establish the habits of democracy, the Taiwanese can now boast of a government which has enjoyed multiple peaceful transitions of governmental power between opposing political parties. Taiwan currently stands in possession of one of the world’s freest economies, with one of the largest economies in general in East Asia. Of interest to the United States, its government, and its people is the fact that Taiwan is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, with an especially strong export market for American agricultural products. For both political and economic reasons, the United States has long held a legitimate interest in the national security and political stability of the Republic of China; as many past U.S. presidents and politicians have understood, Taiwan has long represented and continues to represent one of the Asia-Pacific region’s best chances for the spread and adoption of democracy and free markets. Recent modern history seems to suggest that countries with democratically-elected governments and vibrant free-market economies rarely go to war with each other, and so it makes a lot of sense for the United States to do what it can to maintain the Republic of China’s continued independence and relative strength towards aggressor states that have historically endangered both democracy and free-market capitalism.

Since 1949, when the Republic of China government was forced to flee to Taiwan and establish its headquarters there, the chief threat to Taiwan’s continued existence as an independent state and potential bastion of freedom, democracy, and capitalism in East Asia has always been the communist regime on the Chinese mainland—the government of the People’s Republic of China. In recent years, the threat to Taiwan from the People’s Republic has only increased with the ascension to and consolidation of power into the hands of the People’s Republic new strong-willed supreme leader, Xi Jinping, who seems to prefer taking a hard line with regards to his country’s traditional attitude towards Taiwan. Regardless of Xi’s true intentions towards Taiwan, the fact of the matter is that his government has thus far pursued the triple goals of increased political repression at home, military modernization and expansion, and a continued aggressive geo-political attitude abroad. Because of its geographic position just off mainland China’s coast and so closely situated within the People’s Republic’s sphere of influence, it does not require a stretch of the imagination to understand that in the foreseeable future, Taiwan will likely be the first potential target of choice for communist China’s foreign aggressions.

The United States of America has been a relatively reliable ally to the Republic of China since its entry into the community of nations, and since 1979 the U.S. has committed itself to an official foreign policy doctrine of maintaining Taiwan's self-defense capabilities; this commitment has always included provisions for arms sales intended to keep Taiwan's self-defense capabilities up-to-date and well-prepared for mainland China's aggressive posturing and threats of invasion. According to American agreements regarding Taiwan's security, the president and Congress of the United States are supposed to consider arming and supplying Taiwan based solely upon the needs expressed by the Taiwanese government independent of diplomatic interference by the communist regime of the People's Republic. Complaints from Beijing about American arms sales to Taiwan are nothing new and appear likely to increase in frequency as long as China continues to make the reintegration of Taiwan into the People's Republic a standing strategic doctrine.

Communist China is not afraid to threaten the United States with "severe consequences" every time an American politician or bureaucrat starts talking about renewing U.S. ties to Taiwan or increasing arms sales to the island nation, but this should never stop the U.S. from fulfilling its security commitments to the Republic of China or from helping the Taiwanese to defend their own right to independence from Beijing's interfering ways. For the present, it seems that President Trump and his administration are doing what they can to maintain U.S. support for Taiwan even in the face of Chinese protests. Last fall, the Trump administration announced a new round of arms sales to Taiwan, valued at about $330 million, primarily designed to bolster the Taiwanese air force with spare parts and equipment. This announcement came despite protests from the People's Republic, which claimed that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan severely violate international law and "the basic norms governing international relations." The Chinese warned that American arms sales to Taiwan "interfered with China’s domestic affairs and harmed China’s sovereignty and security interests, and seriously damaged China-U.S. ties...as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."

It seems evident from such protests that whenever the United States sells weapons to Taiwan, it makes Beijing very uncomfortable indeed--a good signal that Trump and his foreign policy team are on the right track, in my opinion. Combined with the Trump administration's efforts to put pressure on the People's Republic through tariffs on China's People's Liberation Army, I wholeheartedly approve of arms sales to Taiwan that provoke frustration in China's communist rulers. China cannot hope to ever successfully invade and hold on to a vanquished Taiwan as long as the United States maintains its own strategic superiority in the Asia-Pacific region and its own unwavering commitment to Taiwan's independence; as long as concerned citizens like myself can count on those two factors, I have absolutely no problem with the Trump administration's brand of escalation in our country's relationship with the People's Republic.

Continuing to guarantee Taiwan's security and continuing to sell weapons to the Taiwanese all take on added meaning and importance in the context of the eight years of neglect inflicted by the Obama White House previous to Donald Trump's ascension to the presidency. Even though the Defense Department once reported that "preparing for potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait remains the focus and primary driver of China’s military investment," some analysts have reported that the eight years of the Obama administration constituted some of the longest periods of near-inactivity on the issue of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan since 1979. In the past, I've shared posts on this blog about why President Obama was always so willing to neglect American geo-strategic interests all across the world, and I've expressed my own frustrations concerning this neglect. For now, I sincerely hope that the Trump administration will continue to do what it has done thus far: to start our country down a new path and to return U.S. foreign policy to its traditional position of proactively strengthening allies like Taiwan.

It will be especially important in the future for the United States to aid Taiwan's acquisition of submarines and advanced fighter jets, both of which will ensure Taiwan's ability to secure its own territorial waters, to protect its airspaces, and to frustrate Chinese incursions or outright invasions in either of these two crucial battle spaces. As one Taiwan expert recently noted, "Taiwan is one of the most densely populated territories on earth, with over 630 persons per square kilometer. The 23 million people on the island are almost wholly dependent on imports for both food and energy. Equally important, Taiwan’s security depends on the ability to challenge the ability of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to cross the islands and mount an invasion, or impose a blockade that would leave the residents starving and in the dark. The PLA’s main planning guidelines appear to focus, still, on taking Taiwan. The PLA’s best forces, and much of its strategic and operational thinking, appear to be oriented toward either taking Taiwan or countering any American attempt to prevent such Chinese actions. Because of the disparity in physical size, economy, and geography, Taiwan’s maritime security in the face of the Chinese threat is a challenging problem." This expert's analysis continued by reminding us that "the key to a successful defense of the island is to hold out long enough for the United States to intervene decisively. Taiwan’s military must therefore be able to simultaneously defend the island, while also nonetheless being able to deny the Chinese regime the ability to easily or rapidly isolate the island." Submarine warfare and air superiority are both key sectors of strategic defense strategy in which Taiwan consistently struggles to keep up with the People's Republic, and are therefore two key areas in which American assistance will continue to prove both necessary and invaluable. Communist China’s military modernization programs and weapons upgrades proceed apace as part of its government's aggressive drive towards regional strategic dominance; Taiwan, with far more limited resources at its command, is in danger of falling behind if the United States does not close the technological gap between some Taiwanese weapons platforms and their Chinese equivalent and/or opponents.

Taiwan has proven to be a valued partner of the U.S. in the Asia-Pacific region. Its security and freedom as well as its ability to make decisions about its own affairs free of Beijing's coercion should all remain important objectives for America's foreign policy. I endorse any efforts by any American administration to follow the stipulations already stated in U.S. policies concerning Taiwan's security vis a vis the People's Republic of China: "that peace and stability in the [Asia-Pacific] area are in the political, security, and economic interests of the United States, and are matters of international concern [as opposed to internal PRC concern]” and that use of anything "other than peaceful means [by the PRC]" constitutes "a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and [is] of grave concern to the United States."

With regards to Taiwan or any of our valued allies around the world, I sincerely hope that the Trump administration will continue what it has started.

--Christopher Peterson, February 28th, 2019