BETTER DEFENSE: Taiwan needs to turn itself ‘into a porcupine’ militarily, as lions ‘don’t like to eat porcupines,’ US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 09, 2020
By: Reuters, WASHINGTON

US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien on Wednesday warned China against any attempt to take Taiwan by force, saying amphibious landings were notoriously difficult and there was a lot of ambiguity about how the US would respond.

O’Brien told an event at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas that China was engaged in a massive naval buildup probably not seen since Germany’s attempt to compete with Britain’s Royal Navy prior to World War I.

“Part of that is to give them the ability to push us back out of the Western Pacific and allow them to engage in an amphibious landing in Taiwan,” O’Brien said.

“The problem with that is that amphibious landings are notoriously difficult,” O’Brien added, pointing to the 160km distance between China and Taiwan, and the paucity of landing beaches.    [FULL  STORY]