Ian Easton weighs in on question ‘Should Taiwan have nukes?’
Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/02
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
(Image from flickr user Maxwell Hamilton)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In an interview with American scholar Ian Easton posted on YouTube on Monday (April 1), China Uncensored host Chris Chappell asked: “Should Taiwan have nuclear weapons?”
In the interview, Easton, a fellow at the Project 2049 Institute, cited the example of Israel as being a small country like Taiwan, which is facing an existential threat from its larger neighbors, but is safe from invasion in part because of its nuclear weapons. “Only a nation that has completely lost its mind and is suicidal, is ever going to invade another nation that is armed with nuclear weapons,” said Easton.
Easton said that the strategic position of Taiwan is becoming highly destabilized, because Taiwan is a democratic nation of 23 million people finding itself squaring off against “a deeply authoritarian” country of 1.3 billion that has nuclear weapons. He said that China’s military might is increasing dramatically and during a speech on Jan 2, Chinese President Xi Jinping in Easton’s words “made it crystal clear that his intentions are to retake Taiwan.”
However, Easton says that the U.S. is not equipped to deal with this situation because the U.S. does not have troops in Taiwan and the U.S. and Taiwan do not have an iron-clad security commitment. He said that the Taiwan Relations Act passed in 1979 is “a very rough substitute for an alliance,” but it is leaving “a huge gap” that is growing as China’s power grows. [FULL STORY]
