Peter Navarro, Real Clear Defense: Can America Still Defend Taiwan?
During the 1995-1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, President Bill Clinton dispatched aircraft carriers in defense of Taiwan’s right to elect a pro-independence presidential candidate, Lee Teng-Hui. Now that Taiwan has once again elected a new president with pro-independence leanings – Tsai Ing-wen – this question must be asked: Will America once again defend Taiwan if Beijing threatens anew its “renegade province”?
This is very real question as Beijing has already begun to rattle sabers, swords, and missiles and threaten economic reprisals. From the White House’s and Pentagon’s perspectives, the problem is not just a fear of escalation should American carriers once again be ordered to the Taiwan Strait. China has also now developed a whole new suite of “anti-access, area denial” weapons explicitly designed to kill the American fleet – and do so in quite splendid asymmetric warfare fashion.
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WNU Editor: This is why reports like this one raises concerns in Asia and in the Pentagon .... Russia's Sale Of It's S-400 Air Defense System To China Will Dramatically Alter The Military Balance In Asia. Sighhhh ..... this is one of those nightmare situations where even if China succeeds in invading and occupying Taiwan .... Asia would then exist in a state of high tensions coupled with a massive global arms build-up that would strain the entire Asian continent and the global economy for a decade or two. In short .... it may lay the groundwork to an even bigger conflict in the future.