Taiwan News
Date: 2020/07/08
By: William A. Stanton, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at high school in Wilmington, Del., on June 30, 2020. (AP photo)
The most robust indication of American support for Taiwan has perhaps come in the form of the strongest U.S. government statements we have ever seen critical of the PRC and supportive of Taiwan. A rhetorical turning point was the introduction to the unclassified version of the U.S. Department of Defense’s National Defense Strategy of 2018.
It was the first new U.S. national defense strategy in 10 years, and it was the first time since the 9/11 terrorist attacks that the government had said in an official public document that its preoccupation with terrorism was over and that the greatest challenge was now the PRC:
“Inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in U.S. national security. China is a strategic competitor using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbors while militarizing features in the South China Sea….It is increasingly clear that China and Russia want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model….”
