Taiwan holds military exercises simulating an attack by China as relations with Beijing deteriorate (AFP Photo/SAM YEH)
SCMP: Taiwan responds to Beijing threats with pledge to increase military spending to ‘ensure national security’
In a move certain to provoke Beijing, Taiwan announces three-point plan to safeguard sovereignty of the self-ruled island.
Taiwan plans to acquire more weapons to increase its fighting power in the face of growing military threats from Beijing, a move certain to further provoke the mainland amid the escalating trade war and military tensions between China and the US.
The self-ruled island’s defence ministry announced new spending plans on Wednesday which it said were intended to echo President Tsai Ing-wen’s national day pledge to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty.
“In addition to building our indigenous submarines and warplanes, [we] will take swifter actions to acquire new weapons and armaments in order to quickly increase our defence power,” it said.
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WNU Editor: They should have done this years ago. The threat from China is very real.
7 comments:
"They should have done this years ago. The threat from China is very real." Very true.
I would add that both the willingness and ability of America to assist them is very, very limited. This is further complicated by the need America has to renegotiate the one-sided trade arrangements we currently have with China. At some point US leaders will have to make some hard decisions here. The question we need to ask is "does a given policy help us or hinder us in these much needed negotiations?" Support for Taiwan is not going to help us in these negotiations and is very likely to be an impediment. Furthermore Taiwan is not mission critical or even that important for American national defense. Essentially why should we risk the lives of millions of Americans to defend Taiwan in a war we are unlikely to win anyway. Logistically trying to fight on behalf of Taiwan would likely be a nightmare coupled with the fact that it is right on china's "doorstep" or in their "backyard." In other words, fighting arguably the second most powerful country in the world in such an endeavor hardly seems a good strategic move especially when they supply us with things we need and we need to renegotiate the trade agreements with them.
With this said, "realpolitik" should NOT be the only factor. There are moral things that need to be considered and there may be intangibles that would need to be considered when deciding whether or not we need to insert ourselves into things such as this. As I recall, when POTUS was elected, one of the first foreign officials to contact him was the leader of Taiwan. She was very likely hoping to manipulate him. Unfortunately US foreign policy is often driven by ideology making our leadership easy to manipulate.
In general, agreed. The steps Taiwan is taking to bolster their defenses should have happened long ago. As I have suggested elsewhere, 1.)they should seek to make the inevitable Chinese victory so costly that they would deem it to costly to attempt, 2.)seek to supply China with something of value that they will risk losing should they go to war giving China a strong disincentive to start a war, and I would add 3.)develop a robust nuclear weapons deterrent along with the means to deliver it.
These are just my thoughts on this. As always, when we don't have access to inside information in real time, we cannot "know" for certain so any analysis in such a situation can be off.
I would think that the greatest threat to Taiwan is not the numbers or nearness of China. Rather I would be very concerned about the reliability of my command structure and strategic military areas. Covert penetration of these by the Chinese is almost a given.
JH
Sorry Mr Poster, but you do not seem to know what our defense and/or mission is
JH,
This is a good point. I didn't mention it here and don't think I've mentioned it elsewhere because I am assuming Taiwan has thought of this and are taking the appropriate counter measures. I would also think that Taiwan is doing the same thing to China. Essentially I suspect they would be working to covertly penetrate the Chinese command structure and strategic military areas as well. Given that they've managed to survive for so long in the power of a great power that is determined to conquer them, I would strongly suspect they have had some success in this area. While we cannot "know" without access to inside information in real time, due to the fact that Taiwan has managed to survive I think it is highly probable that their Intel services are among the very best in the world.
This is in contrast to US (un)intelligence that is led and largely staffed by incompetent boobs and political hacks. I am glad you mentioned this. While the US government is generally quite stupid, it does not have a monopoly on this. Perhaps the US could study the Taiwanese model here and perhaps our personnel could learn something.
Anon (3:22PM),
I'm not sure anyone really understands what our defense and/or mission is. Any support for Taiwan of any type risks conflict with China. This is at a time when we are trying to and need to renegotiate our trade arrangements with them. It would be prudent to ask what we are doing, why we are doing it, and why this is worth the risks of millions if not tens of millions or more American lives. The same questions need to be asked regarding a number of our military deployments. Thank you for the reply.
Instead of "military deployments," while they are important and serious questions need to be raised about a number of them, more appropriate wording in the context of this thread would have been "military commitments."
BP,
The closer you are racially, culturally, and geographically the easier it is to penetrate and yes it is a two street. Not only do the decision maker(s) have to wonder about reliability and the danger of betrayal of their own people, but also how does these thoughts affect or inhibit their own decisions?
JH
A little more,
One of Taiwan's greatest problems is no one now on the island (or very few to be insignificant) came from the mainland and have very little direct experience with conditions there. This is a fertile field for propaganda.
JH
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