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Washington’s threat was conveyed by US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien. At an event at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, O’Brien said China was engaged in a massive naval buildup that may not have been seen since Germany’s attempts to compete with the British Royal Navy before World War One. (Read: China Exercises Again in the South China Sea, Taiwan Fears War Breaks Out)
“Part of that is giving them the ability to push us out of the Western Pacific, and to enable it to make amphibious landings in Taiwan,” he was quoted as saying. Reuters, Thursday (8/10/2020).
“The problem is that amphibious landings are very difficult,” O’Brien said, referring to the 160 km distance between China and Taiwan and the lack of coastal landing areas on the island.
“This is not an easy task, and there is also a lot of ambiguity about what the United States will do in response to China’s attack on Taiwan,” continued O’Brien, when asked what US options should China move to try to invade Taiwan. (Read: Taiwan Spends IDR 13 Trillion to Expel Chinese Fighter Jets This Year)
O’Brien referred to a longstanding US policy of “ambiguous strategy” when answering the question of whether America would intervene to protect Taiwan, which China considers its province and has vowed to reunite with mainland China, even by military force if necessary.
The United States is obliged by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, but it has not been made clear whether to intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack, something that is likely to lead to a wider conflict with Beijing.
O’Brien’s comments come at a time when China has significantly increased military activity near Taiwan and when US-China relations have fallen to their lowest point in decades.
O’Brien repeated US calls for Taiwan to spend more of its money on its own defense and on military reforms to explain to China the risks of trying to attack. (Also read: Indonesia Threatens Hard Reminder to China on South China Sea)
“You can’t just spend 1 percent of your GDP, which Taiwan has done — 1.2 percent — on defense, and hope to deter China from engaging in the biggest military buildup in 70 years,” he said.
“Taiwanians need to transform themselves into military hedgehogs. Lions generally do not like to eat hedgehogs,” he said.
On Tuesday, a senior US defense official for East Asia called Taiwan’s plans to increase defense spending by $ 1.4 billion next year as insufficient. According to him, the island needs to invest in capabilities including more cruise missiles, sea mines, fast attack ships, artillery. mobile, and advanced surveillance assets.
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