Global Taiwan Institute
Date: June 3, 2020
By: Michael Mazza

“If Hong Kong falls, or if the Chinese government imposes the national security legislation on

Hong Kong, we don’t know what is going to happen next. It might be Taiwan.” Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), conveyed those worries during a Fox News interview last week. Although Beijing appears unlikely to take precipitous action against Taiwan at present, there is reason for concern given China’s ongoing domestic difficulties and its taste for external assertiveness. What can be done? Mike Gallagher, a congressman from Wisconsin, has one idea:

Now is the time for a declaratory statement of policy committing the United States to the defense of Taiwan. While this approach is not without risk, as we have learned painfully from decades of failed policy toward the [Chinese Communist Party], the greatest risk of all comes from complacency.

Gallagher is right. The ambiguity in Washington’s approach to the defense of Taiwan—will it or won’t it come to Taiwan’s aid in a time of need?—is no longer conducive to the stability of the Taiwan Strait. There should be little doubt in Xi Jinping’s (習近平) mind that the United States would seek to intervene decisively in the event he opted to use force.    [FULL  STORY]