Translation / editing by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
CCP China is ambitious in invading Taiwan. There are increasing calls for the United States to move from strategic ambiguity to strategic clarity. Former U.S. defense official Bosco further appealed on 4 May 2021 that the U.S. should not only clearly declare that it will defend Taiwan, but should also immediately recognize Taiwan if the mainland sends troops to attack the island.
In recent years, the Communist army has moved frequently around Taiwan, and the situation in the Taiwan Strait has attracted much attention. Some U.S. congressmen and think tank scholars argued that the "strategic ambiguity" policy adopted by the United States for many years is no longer applicable to the current situation and that the "strategic clarity" approach should be changed to clearly declare that if the mainland violates Taiwan by force, the United States will send troops to defend Taiwan.
Joseph Bosco, who served as the Chief of the China Section of the Office of the Secretary of Defense during the time of former U.S. President George W. Bush, submitted an act today to the "Capitol Hill" (The Hill) suggesting that the mainland often threatens Taiwan’s "independence" It is equal to war." The United States and its allies should operate in the opposite direction and declare to Beijing that "war is akin to (Taiwan) independence".
Bosco said that the United States should draw a red line to let the CCP know that if it launches an attack on Taiwan, the United States will not only defend Taiwan, but will also immediately recognize Taiwan as a "sovereign and independent member of the international community." Bosco pointed out that although strategic ambiguity has deterred the mainland from invading Taiwan in the past 26 years, it has not discouraged Beijing from making plans and preparations for future attacks on Taiwan.
CCP Chinese President Xi Jinping once said that the Taiwan issue cannot be passed on to the next generation while former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger also warned that the mainland will not wait forever. With the seemingly increasing possibility of the mainland invading Taiwan, Bosco said that three current or former senior U.S. naval officials have recently warned of the danger of the mainland's invasion of Taiwan. When talking about how to deter Beijing, they all wrote something about the U.S. strategic ambiguity policy.
Bosco said that although former Indo-Pacific Command Commander Philip Davidson believed that the strategy was vague for many years to help Taiwan maintain the status quo, he agreed that the policy should be reviewed.
Retired admiral James Stavridis directly pointed out that strategic ambiguity is dangerous, which may lead to wrong judgments by China or Taiwan and detonate greater conflict but the US Director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, expressed a very different view last week. She believes that if the United States adopts a clear strategic policy, the mainland may regard this as a serious destabilization, and she believes that the United States' determination to suppress the rise of the mainland may also promote Taiwan's independence.
In this regard, Bosco criticized, Haines's speech was very problematic. He said that the lack of clarity in policies has long caused serious destabilization, and Haynes has ignored this. Even during the 40 years when the United States adopted a policy of communication in the past to promote and accommodate the rise of the mainland, Beijing has been accusing the West of trying to suppress the rise of the mainland. In addition, Bosco pointed out that even in the face of threats and provocations from the mainland as an escalation, President Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic Progressive Party have always been very responsible for avoiding any excuses for aggression in Beijing. He added that the day after Haynes spoke, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan reiterated his opposition to the mainland unilaterally changing the status quo across the Taiwan Strait but President Joe Biden should deliver a clear and firm message to end the defense of Taiwan, and not ambiguity.
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