Taiwan Enters the Cross-Strait Relations Danger Zone

Robert C. O'Brien

Security, Asia

What will Taiwan's new president do on defense issues as well as the China challenge? 

Taipei, Republic of China - The Republic of China (ROC), better known as Taiwan to most Americans, has been in the headlines since Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was sworn in as the nation's first female president on May 20.  The DPP derives most of its support from ethnic Taiwanese and is generally considered to be pro-independence. The opposition, Kuomintang Party, or KMT, which traces its roots to General Chiang Kai-shek's supporters, who fled the mainland ahead of the Communists in 1949, believes Taiwan to be fundamentally Chinese.  Although it differs starkly in ideology with that of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on the mainland, the KMT is generally in accord with the CCP that Taiwan is part of "one China."  Accordingly, the PRC is not amused by Ms. Tsai's and the DPP's landslide win and the general excitement her inauguration has generated in Taiwan.

And it seems Taiwan’s security challenges are back in the headlines as well. Retired U.S. Navy Captain Jerry Hendrix wrote in National Review last week that “China’s strategy [in the Pacific] mirrors Russia’s actions in Georgia, the Crimea, and Ukraine” and asks, “is war with China is inevitable?” Bridge Colby and Walter Slocombe took to the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal last week to urge the Obama Administration to deter Chinese cross-strait challenges by “openly and forthrightly specif[ing] that the U.S. would defend Taiwan against unprovoked Chinese aggression.’  Over the weekend, J. Michael Cole in The National Interest advised President Tsai “to prepare against the eventuality that China could resort to force of arms to break the status quo” and laid out several weapons systems that Taiwan should deploy to counter the PRC threat.  

Facts on the Ground: