BIGGER AND SMARTER:Taiwan needs to foster interoperability with US and Japanese forces and utilize new technologies to challenge Chinese dominance, a US academic said
Taipei Times
Date: Oct 09, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
Vanderbilt University Center for US-Japan Studies and Cooperation director James Auer yesterday said
Vanderbilt University Center for US-Japan Studies and Cooperation director James Auer attends a symposium in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
that if “the credibility of using Taiwanese, Japanese and American resolve when challenged by China is not clearly demonstrated, Beijing may get overconfident and attempt to achieve its hegemonic goals militarily.”
At a symposium hosted in Taipei by the Taiwan National Security Institute to discuss the South China Sea dispute and Asian-Pacific peace and security, Auer said the seamless navy-to-navy cooperation between the US and Japan during the Cold War resulted in a victory in the Pacific by deterrence.
“The victory was made possible because, despite the huge numbers of Soviet submarines, the US and Japanese navies maintained control of the seas of the western Pacific,” he added.
“The post-Cold War question for Tokyo and Washington is, in my opinion, whether the Japanese and US navies can similarly deter China from aggressive acts of war as they did vis-a-vis the Soviet Pacific Fleet in the 1980s; a related question is: How can Taiwan most meaningfully and most cost effectively provide for its self-defense?” Auer said. [FULL STORY]
