CURRENT CHALLENGES IN US POLICY TOWARDS TAIWAN

Abstract

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.