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Will US Make Clear-cut Commitment to Defend Taiwan From China?

John Xie

   For almost 70 years, the United States has never explicitly committed
   itself to the defense of Taiwan against Chinese invasion. Now, with
   U.S.-China relations at a historic low, worries over a Chinese assault
   on Taiwan are growing, and the fundamental U.S. policy may be changing.

   An increasing number of military analysts and members of Congress now
   argue that it is time for the United States to revisit its policy of
   "strategic ambiguity" for Taiwan's defense, which for decades has
   supported billions of dollars in arms sales despite no formal
   diplomatic relations.

   Critics of the policy point out that as the region's military balance
   moves in China's favor, strategic ambiguity is increasingly
   unsustainable.

   "It might actually make war even more likely, emboldening Xi Jinping
   and the CCP to undertake military action against the island by deluding
   themselves into thinking the U.S. might remain on the sidelines,"
   Michael Hunzeke, a professor at George Mason University's Schar School
   of Policy and Government, told VOA in an email.

   "We need to change things on Taiwan to improve the deterrent and make
   clearer where we stand, especially by ending any remaining ambiguity
   about how we'd react to the use of force and altering our military
   force structure and posture," Elbridge Colby, a former deputy assistant
   secretary of defense, wrote in The New York Times early this week.
   Colby was an author of the Trump administration national defense
   strategy, which emphasizes competition with China and Russia.

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