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Taiwan must work on
self- defense, conference hears
DO NOT RELAX: In the case of an attack by China,
the nation must defend itself vigorously rather than awaiting rescue by the US,
an academic said at a US conference
By William Lowther / Staff reporter in Washington
US President Barack Obama¡¦s pivot to Asia may bolster Taiwan¡¦s security, but the
nation must do more to defend itself, a Washington conference was told this
week.
¡§Apathy kills,¡¨ US Naval War College strategy professor James Holmes said.
¡§The pivot¡¦s capacity to dissuade or defeat China hinges on whether US Navy
relief forces can reach the island¡¦s [Taiwan¡¦s] vicinity, do battle and prevail
at a cost acceptable to the American state and society,¡¨ he said.
¡§This is an open question ¡X but one that Taiwan¡¦s armed forces can, and must,
help answer in the affirmative,¡¨ Holmes told the conference on Taiwan and the
US¡¦ Pivot to Asia held at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
In the case of an attack by China, Taiwan must show a ¡§vigorous hand¡¨ in its
defense rather than passively awaiting rescue, he said.
¡§Otherwise, it may stand alone in its hour of need,¡¨ Holmes said.
He added that Taiwan must think of itself as a partner, as well as a
beneficiary, of the US ¡§strategic pirouette.¡¨
Holmes said that Taipei¡¦s performance is ¡§suspect¡¨ in both military and
diplomatic terms.
Defense budgets, he said, were a rough gauge of political resolve and they have
dwindled from ¡§already meager levels.¡¨
Only by conspicuously upgrading its defenses, could Taiwan¡¦s leadership help a
US president justify the costs and hazards of ordering increasingly scarce
forces into battle against ¡§a peer competitor,¡¨ he said.
University of Miami professor June Teufel Dreyer said that although the
overwhelming majority of Taiwanese had expressed a desire not to unify with
China, the absorption of Taiwan into China ¡§may be reaching a de facto if not a
de jure tipping point, past which reversal is impossible.¡¨
If this was the case, she said, it was difficult to see how the US could gain
any advantage from incorporating Taiwan into a pivot that was aimed at
constraining China.
At the same time, Taiwan¡¦s military and intelligence bureaucracies had been
infiltrated by Chinese operatives and it did not make sense to sell advanced
weaponry ¡§to a country that would transfer it to America¡¦s most likely
adversary,¡¨ she added.
Dreyer added that Taiwan¡¦s current government seemed to favor gradual
incorporation into China, whether formally or informally, and that would be
disadvantageous to the US.
¡§Taiwan cannot count on the US to guarantee the security of a Taiwan whose
administration seems to be encouraging its incorporation into China,¡¨ she said.
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