On Taiwan: Can America get its act together?

I think it is more than fair to say that the United States does not have a Taiwan policy. Believing in strategic ambiguity, which is what many in the administration and lots of so-called smart scholars think is a policy, definitely does not measure up as one.

In fact, if your strategic concept is ambiguous then you have no firm direction and no reason to execute any program, other than sit on a log and scratch your head, or whatever else you scratch.

A policy implies one has a program that can be applied. In regard to Taiwan, there isn’t one.

There is, of course, “guidance” in the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 (TRA). The TRA was a desperation measure by Congress after President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger decided to abandon Taiwan and embrace China.

But what does the TRA do? In effect not much except for one key provision that reads as follows: The TRA “Declares that in furtherance of the principle of maintaining peace and stability in the Western Pacific area, the United States shall make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capacity as determined by the President and the Congress.”

Take careful note that the TRA does not commit the United States to do anything more than supply “defense articles” to enable Taiwan to have a “sufficient self-defense capacity” that will be determined by the president and the Congress.

In practice it has meant selling largely second-hand equipment to Taiwan making sure that Taiwan has no offensive firepower. When Taiwan, for example, decided to build its own fighter plane, called the F-CK-1 Ching-kuo, the United States would only authorize small engines for it and limited the plane’s fuel capacity so it would be of no use against China.

But even if the United States actually supplied front-line, first-class equipment to Taiwan, it is simply ludicrous to think that Taiwan, an island of 23.57 million could stand up to China with a population of 1.402 billion, and a strong military to match its population size and wealth.

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