On June 11, US Senator Josh Hawley introduced the draft of the Taiwan Defense Act so as to maintain the ability of the US army to stop China from taking a “fait accompli” strategy against Taiwan. “Fait accompli” refers to a situation in which the Chinese army takes over Taiwan before the US military can react effectively, or the US is led to believe that a counterattack is impossible or comes at a huge cost.

Subsequent to the Taiwan Travel Act and Taipei Act, the Taiwan Defense Act is an act introduced by the US Senate specifically for Taiwan. Its purpose is to prevent China from forcefully achieving unification with Taiwan by military invasion, showing that the US is strengthening its support for Taiwan.

During the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, a spokesman for the US State Department said that Taiwan was where the US major interests lied. After proposing the Taiwan Defense Act, Hawley said in a tweet that Taiwan was the vital interest of the US. That is to say, Taiwan is of the highest level of national interest in the US and is pivotal not only to the survival and prosperity of the US, but also to the lives and properties of US citizens and its democracy. According to the President Bill Clinton’s guidelines for the use of force, when survival interests were threatened, the US would resort to force without turning back.

Taiwan’s importance to the US has been growing phenomenally mainly for the following reasons: First, Taiwan has become a model of successful democratization among developing countries, shattering the belief that democracy is not suitable for Chinese societies. As stated in the draft of the Taiwan Defense Act, Taiwan is the beacon to democracy in Asia. If China reunifies Taiwan by military force, the world will lose a great leading country for freedom and democracy.

China seizing Taiwan can strengthen its power in the Indo Pacific region

Secondly, the US regards China as a competitor or even a potential enemy. President Donald Trump has made it clear that he would strategically adopt a competitive approach to China. In the long run, the two countries will be competing for global leadership, while in the short run, they are competing for the control of the first island chain.

Taiwan is situated at the heart of the first island chain. According to Zbigniew Brzeziński’s book The Grand Chessboard published in the 1990s, the US had to not allow China to annex Taiwan. Currently, Taiwan is of even higher strategic value to the US. For this reason, the draft of the Taiwan Defense Act pointed out that if China seizes Taiwan, the US and its allies will find it very difficult to maintain a favorable balance of power in East Asia, and the balance of power in the entire Indo Pacific region will be slanted in favor of China.

Third, US Vice President Mike Pence said that Taiwan’s embrace of democracy shows a better path for all the Chinese people. This indicates that China’s authoritarianism and rule by suppression are outdated. Taiwan’s continued existence is not only a strong mental support for the people of Hong Kong, but also brings hope to the Chinese people who support democracy. In addition, as science and technology warfare is the key to the US-China trade war, Taiwan’s technological industry plays a pivotal role in the success of the US-China trade war.

The increased US support for Taiwan, including supporting Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, assisting Taiwan to maintain diplomatic relations with allies, and increasing arms sales to Taiwan, is a reaction to China’s increased military force to intimidate Taiwan. The US policy towards Taiwan consists of basic principles encompassing peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue, and opposing any party to undermine the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, whereas Washington believes that China is chipping away at the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.

Over the past 4 years, China has carted off 7 countries that had diplomatic relations with Taiwan, launched the "Starve Taiwan Policy", stepped up the threat of military force, attempted to manipulate Taiwan’s politics by using sharp power, and unilaterally stopped the cross-strait dialogue, seriously threatening peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait. Thus, the US, in addition to highly affirming President Tsai Ing-wen’s efforts in maintaining the status quo and non-provocative policies, is convinced that support for Taiwan should be intensified substantially.

President Trump pointed out that, in the past, the US adopted an Engagement Policy which included helping China to join international organizations and providing assistance to China's economic development, in the hope that China would become a strong power that acts responsibly and promotes democratic reforms. However, the result turned out to be the contrary: a stronger China did emerge, but it became a revisionist power, sanctioning its neighbors time and again, and often delivered tit-for-tat against the US in the international arena. What's worse is that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime became increasingly authoritarian, with which American elites were very disappointed.

American forces will intervene in the Taiwan Strait conflict

The Wuhan pneumonia pandemic exposed serious flaws in China’s governance model. Beijing concealed the outbreak and missed the opportunity to control it, causing the epidemic to spread out of control to the whole world, leading to massive global losses both in lives and the economy. The US was particularly severely hit, which caused up to 60% of the American people disgusted with China.

The Taiwan Defense Act requires that the US employ military strength to stop China from unifying with Taiwan by storm. This shows that the US has decided to adopt a strategic clarity strategy, that is, to clearly inform Beijing that the US will draw on armed might to intervene in the military conflict in the Taiwan Strait to deter Beijing’s use of force against Taiwan, because Taiwan is already the survival interest of the US, and Taiwan’s brilliant performance against the Wuhan pneumonia has made Taiwan an important asset in the international community. Beijing should have fully understood the position of the US, which is an important reason why recently some Chinese retired army generals have toned down their voices when speaking about the forceful unification with Taiwan.

(Lin Wen Cheng, Professor of Institute of China and Asia-Pacific Studies, National Sun Yat-sen University)

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