ALL TALK?RAND analyst Mark Cozad said that if the US sold Taiwan arms, the response from China would be negative, but ultimately insignificant

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 10, 2015
By: William Lowther  /  Staff reporter in WASHINGTON

The US should consider selling additional air defense systems to Taiwan, said Mark Cozad, a former senior executive in the US Defense Intelligence Agency.

While he did not detail the systems he had in mind, the senior international policy analyst at the RAND Corporation specializing in East Asia military and security issues said that they should be capable of countering ballistic missiles.

In an interview published by the National Bureau of Asian Research, Cozad said: “Unless the US is willing to write off Taiwan’s ability to defend itself in a conflict between China and Taiwan, Washington will need to consider arms sales.”

He said that China had developed and purchased large numbers of “capabilities related to the US position in Taiwan.”     [FULL  STORY]