CURRENT CHALLENGES IN US POLICY TOWARDS TAIWAN
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29038/2524-2679-2024-01-154-166Keywords:
public policy, political regime, democracy, civil society, political slogansAbstract
The article analyzes a wide range of current challenges in US policy toward Taiwan, including populist slogans, economic potential, and security threats. Interpreting the understanding of the US national security strategy, it should be noted that it is based on two pillars: the first pillar promotes “freedom, justice, and human dignity, i.e., working to end tyranny and promote effective democ- racy,” while the second pillar confronts “the challenges of our time by leading the growing community of democracies.” This is part of the tradition of American foreign policy, often referred to as the “American project.” This project aims to “protect our homeland security by building a peaceful world order of democratic nations bound by shared values and the idea of common prosperity”.
The Pacific region has become the main testing ground of the twenty-first century to determine whether China and the United States will be able to build a new model of relations between superpowers and preserve the existing international security order. While some Americans criticize China for its increasing assertive- ness in its foreign policy and urge China to avoid the expansionist world order of the old imperialist powers, many Chinese believe that building this new rela- tionship depends to a large extent on the United States changing its approach to US-China bilateral relations and adapting to the new reality of China’s interna- tional rise.
It should be understood that strategic distrust between the two countries is inevi- table, as US-China relations have always been characterized by varying degrees of contact that cannot be completely resolved by any modern diplomatic instru- ments. Justifying each other’s actions and lack of empathy can only intensify the strategic rivalry between China and the United States. If leaders in both Washing- ton and Beijing do not attempt to engage with each other on issues of common concern, working separately to protect their interests by maintaining a delicate balance of power, a mixture of self-justification and miscalculation could turn the China – U.S. rivalry into a new Cold War, which would be even more dangerous than the previous US-Soviet Cold War, as it lacks a single center of confrontation and has many more hotspots, including the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan Strait, and the South and East China Seas. Thus, the Asia-Pacific region has become one of the most dangerous areas for regional and geopolitical state relations in the twenty-first century.
References
Central Budget Information. Directorate-General of Budgeting, Accounting and Sta- tistics, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. (Taiwan): [Official Site]. Available from: https://eng.dgbas. gov.tw/np.asp?ctNode=1911
Easton, I. (2017). Transformation of Taiwan’s Reserve Force / Stokes Mark, Cooper Cortez A., Chan Arthur. RAND Corporation, Washington, DC, p. 94. Available from: https:// www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1700/RR1757/RAND_RR1757. pdf
Glaser, B. S. (2020). Toward a Stronger U. S.-Taiwan Relationship / Glaser Bon- nie S., Bush Richard C., Green Michael J. A Report of the CSIS Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward Taiwan / Center for Strategies & International Studies, Washington, DC, OCTO- BER, p. 57. Available from: http://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publi- cation/201021_Glaser_TaskForce_Toward_A_Stronger_USTaiwan_Relationship_0.pdf
Green, M. (2017). Countering Coercion in Maritime Asia: The Theory and Prac- tice of Gray Zone Deterrence. Center for Strategic & International Studies: [Official Site]. CSIS/Rowman & Littlefield, 9 May. Available from: https://www.csis.org/analysis/counter- ing-coercion-maritime-asia.
Haas, R., Sacks D. (2020). American Support for Taiwan Must be Unambiguous. Foreign Affairs, 2 September. Available from: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/unit- ed-states/american-support-taiwan-must-be-unambiguous
Inaugural address of ROC 15th-term Tsai Ing-wen. Office of the President Repub- lic of China (Taiwan): [Official Site]. Available from: https://english.president.gov.tw/ News/6004.
Kanno-Youngs, Z. Baker, P. (2022). Biden Pledges to Defend Taiwan if It Faces a Chinese Attack. The New York Times, 23 May. Available from: https://www.nytimes. com/2022/05/23/world/asia/biden-taiwan-china.html
National Defense Report 2017: [Official Document]. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, Taipei: [Official Site], December 2017, p. 86–87. Available from: https://www. ustaiwandefense.com/tdnswp/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Taiwan-National-Defense-Re- port-2017.pdf.
Peck, M. (2019). Why Does Taiwan Need M-1 Abrams Tanks. National Interest,
November. Available from: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/why-does-taiwan- need-m-1-abrams-tanks-99207
Shattuck, T. J. (2021). Assessing the Patterns of PLA Air Incursions into Taiwan’s ADIZ. Global Taiwan Brief, vol. 6, issue 7, pp. 15–18. Available from: https://globaltaiwan. org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GTB-PDF-6.7-.pdf
SIPRI Military Expenditure Database. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI): [Official Site]. Available from: https://www.sipri.org/databases/milex.
Thompson, D. (2018). Hope on the Horizon: Taiwan’s Radical New Defense Con- cept. War on the Rocks, 2 October. Available from: https://warontherocks.com/2018/10/ hope-on-the-horizon-taiwans-radical-new-defense-concept/.
Transcript: President Tsai Ing-wen Discusses the Diplomatic, Security, and Eco- nomic Challenges Facing Taiwan. Hudson Institute: [Official Site], 12 August, 2020. Avail- able from: https://www.hudson.org/research/16300-transcript-president-tsai-ing-wen-dis- cusses-the-diplomatic-security-and-economic-challenges-facing-taiwan
What Does China Really Spend on its Military? ChinaPower. Available from: https://chinapower.csis.org/military-spending/.
Wuthnow, J. (2020). System Overload: Can China’s Military Be Distracted in a War over Taiwan? China Strategic Perspectives / Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, Washington, DC: NDU Press, 25 June, № 15, p. 55. Avail- able from: https://inss.ndu.edu/Media/News/Article/2232448/system-overload-can-chinas- military-be-distracted-in-a-war-over-taiwan/
Zachary, Haver (2020). American Leaders Sold a Dream of Changing China. Foreign Policy, 29 September. Available from: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/29/ameri- can-leaders-sold-changing-china-engagement/