Our principal rival on the world scene is China – more specifically the Chinese Communist Party. For decades now the United States has bent over backwards to work with China and try to get them to act as a responsible nation.
China has done the very opposite in almost every case. They have bullied their neighbors in the Indo-Pacific region. They have illegally built islands in the South China Sea, and then militarized them. They have allowed, encouraged really, North Korea to develop, flaunt, and threaten to use, nuclear weapons. They have committed untold numbers of human rights abuses against the Uighurs, Hong Kongers, Tibetans and Falun Gong. They have stolen our intellectual property, costing Americans billions and billions of dollars. They have artificially manipulated their currency to the detriment of all their trading partners, including the United States. And they almost certainly allowed a deadly virus, COVID-19, to escape from a Wuhan, China laboratory, and rather than assist the world to deal with it, covered it up, resulting in the deaths of over 5 million people across the globe.
And now it appears that the Chinese Communist Party intends to try to take by force a critical ally of the United States, Taiwan (formerly Formosa.)
US policy since at least the Obama administration has been known as “strategic ambiguity” (we keep China guessing as to whether the US would defend Taiwan if China actually attacked.) In my opinion, this policy is foolish, outdated and most importantly, dangerous. It invites a miscalculation by China as to what the US would do should they attack.
I support a policy known as “strategic clarity” (we make it clear to China in advance that if China attacks, we and our allies would defend Taiwan.) In my opinion, it is much less likely that China would attack if they knew ahead of time the consequences that would unfold should they attack. China is much less likely to take military action, and so peace will more likely be maintained.
Despite the US’s current “strategic ambiguity” policy, President Biden recently publicly stated that in case of an attack, the United States would defend Taiwan. I commend President Biden for making this bold and public statement relative to Taiwan.
Of course actions speak louder than words. And the Biden administration‘s actions relative to military readiness thus far has left a lot to be desired. For example, in the administration’s upcoming budget, the only government spending that DIDN’T get a hefty increase, was our military, and homeland security.
So, Mr. President, even though I compliment you on publicly supporting Taiwan, you need to back up your commitment with an adequately funded military budget. And of course your chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan worried our allies (like Taiwan) a great deal, and gave great comfort to our adversaries (like China.)
The bottom line is, the United States must be willing to stand up to Chinese Communist aggression, whether it’s defending our ally Taiwan, or ending the theft of our intellectual property and jobs, or protecting the American people from a deadly virus.