US On Attack Over Taiwan's Defence

[callady]

US on attack over Taiwan's defence

Simon Tisdall
Friday October 21, 2005
The Guardian


Concerned by China's rapid military buildup but anxious for closer strategic ties with Beijing, the Bush administration is insisting that Taiwan - the most likely future military flashpoint between the two countries - does more to defend itself or face reduced US support.

During a visit to China this week the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, restated US worries about Beijing's intentions - and the secrecy cloaking its military spending. "It raises some questions about whether China will make the right choices, choices that will serve ... regional peace and stability," he said.

<snip>

"If Taiwan is not willing to properly invest in its own self-defence, why should we, the US, provide for it?" Edward Ross, a senior Pentagon official, asked in a speech at the US-Taiwan Business Council last month. "At a time when young American men and women are in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan - countries not nearly as developed or politically evolved as Taiwan - an increasing number of Americans are asking hard questions about how much we are willing to sacrifice for the security and democracy of others."

While not explicitly threatening to withdraw US guarantees, Mr Ross demanded that Taiwan increased its defence spending, "hardened" its military posture, and did "not simply rely on the US's capacity to address a threat in the Taiwan Strait".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1597440,00.html

[callady]

1. Note Taiwan's Strategic Location near the South China Sea

South China Sea Region
The South China Sea region is the world's second busiest international sea lane. More than half of the world's supertanker traffic passes through the region's waters. In addition, the South China Sea region contains oil and gas resources strategically located near large energy-consuming countries.

Information contained in this report is the best available as of September 2003 and is subject to change.

The South China Sea encompasses a portion of the Pacific Ocean stretching roughly from Singapore and the Strait of Malacca in the southwest, to the Strait of Taiwan (between Taiwan and China) in the northeast (see the footnote for a more precise definition). The area includes more than 200 small islands, rocks, and reefs, with the majority located in the Paracel and Spratly Island chains. Many of these islands are partially submerged islets, rocks, and reefs that are little more than shipping hazards not suitable for habitation; the total land area of the Spratly Islands is less than 3 square miles. The islands are important, however, for strategic and political reasons, because ownership claims to them are used to bolster claims to the surrounding sea and its resources.

The South China Sea is rich in natural resources such as oil and natural gas. These resources have garnered attention throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Asia's economic growth rates have been among the highest in the world, and this economic growth will be accompanied by an increasing demand for energy. Between now and 2025, oil consumption in developing Asian countries is expected to rise by 3.0% annually on average, with more than one-third of this increase coming from China alone. If this growth rate is maintained, oil demand for these nations will increase from about 14.5 million barrels per day in 2000 to nearly 29.8 million barrels per day by 2025.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/schina.html

[Kagemusha]

2. That's rich.

Taiwan knows the US is going to defend it anyway. Why should the US provide for it? To stop China from acquiring it, obviously. And because the Taiwan Relations Act basically requires it. And because the US has made a strategic decision to do so. Bush spilled the beans on that part. Maybe if he hadn't, this wouldn't have happened. Wasn't smart either way.

[400Years]

3. China is rapidly building/buying submarines and once they have enough

its game over

[Captain Hilts]

5. Hey! A WWII-era sub my father served on STILL in service with Taiwan.

Two old US diesel submarines still ply the waves for Taiwan. He was on USS Cutlass] They're in excellent condition, but I can't help but think they might need something more modern.

The US won't sell them nukes and we won't build non-nuke submarines.

[megatherium]

4. Taiwan is a Chinese matter.

We should have nothing to do with the defense of Taiwan. We should encourage a peaceful resolution of the situation; there are already trade linkages between the mainland and Taiwan. A war over Taiwan with the PRC would be catastrophic on many levels.

Actually, if we do absolutely nothing, Taiwan and the mainland will be united in the future anyway: in about 10 million years, Formosa will merge with the mainland due to plate tectonics.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Sounds like April Glaspie. nt

[Igel]

8. Uh-huh.

Kuwait is an Iraqi matter.

Kosovo is a Yugoslav matter.

Lebanon is a Syrian matter.

The Sudetenland was a German matter.

Poland was a joint Soviet-German matter.

Strictly speaking, we could say Greece is a Turkish matter, and Spain is a Moroccan matter, but we have to draw the line somewhere before we have to conclude that France becomes an Italian matter and China becomes a Mongol matter.

Self-determination. Not for progressives any more.

[megatherium]

9. Do we want to send our soldiers to die in a Chinese civil war?

All the examples you give of countries were not civil wars, but wars of aggression. Beijing/Taipei is a civil war. If you talk to Chinese American people, you may be surprised to find out that many of them don't understand why the US is taking sides in that contest, they believe that it is an internal Chinese matter.

I will grant that Taiwan deserves our sympathy. But do we really want a war with a thermonuclear power, a power that has suffered enormous humiliation at the hands of western powers over the last two centuries and bears a great deal of resentment over this?

Self-determination may or may not be for progressives, but I can assure you that neo-conservative ideology is definitely not for progressives. Bringing democracy to Iraq should be an instructive example.

[amandabeech]

10. To get control of the oil and gas under the South China Sea.

And to keep control of the sea lanes surrounding it which bring all kinds of mineral and agricultural resources to China, Japan and Korea by sea from all directions. If a serious struggle for resources should really get going, Taiwan will become a very, very large aircraft carrier battle group all by itself.

Right now, though, we are dramatically overstretched and cannot meet Rummy's fantasy deployments. If the Taiwanese aren't going to help us in Iraq, then Rummy will insist that they take up the slack at home.

[Supersedeas]

7. Taxpayer funded Govt Officials lobbying hard to Global Defense Contractors

More guns less butter (the butter lobby needs better representation)

[Psephos]

11. Bilateral trade with China is the best strategic defense

With a hundred and fifty billion dollars a year changing hands between China and the US, we need them, and they need us. This has a powerfully stabilizing effect on relations...rather like a marriage where neither partner really loves the other, but the economics of divorce would be a disaster.

Peace.