The one commonality that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the U.S. share with respect to the status of Taiwan is that it is a quagmire in each respective nations’ foreign policy priorities. As one of East Asia’s most democratically liberal societies, Taiwan helps to serve U.S. interests in the region, both by acting as a bulwark against the PRC’s expansionist quest in the region and emphasizing the importance of democracy. Therefore, while the U.S. commitment to Taiwan’s security may present some risks, it is important to recognize that there are national security opportunities that derive from a re-affirmation of Taiwanese and U.S. interests in the region through continued U.S. commitment.
As pointed out by the Project 2049 Institute, the national security goal of Taiwan is to “deny or complicate the PLA’s ability to invade, occupy, and hold the island…because it is content…only with preserving its security and maintaining its democratically elected government.” The fact that the PRC’s defense budget is over 12 times that of Taiwan’s and vastly out-competes Taiwan in terms of hard-security measures, such as military personnel, fighter aircraft, and tanks, should pose a direct threat to this objective. However, in order to address this imbalanced issue, the Overall Defense Concept, Taiwan’s official national security strategy against the PRC, highlighted one tenet of Taiwan’s security as “embracing an effective asymmetric defense posture and incorporating tactical asymmetric capabilities.” This means that it would serve Taiwan’s interests to raise the costs of a PRC invasion of the island through cost-effective and durable military technology in order to deter an attack, rather than engage in a costly and ineffective arms race with the PRC.
This is an area where the U.S. can step in and expand its role in Taiwan’s security. From defensive military equipment to on-the-ground logistical support and personnel training, U.S. involvement with Taiwan’s security is a public secret, even if the U.S. would prefer to stand by its policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ with respect to Taiwan’s sovereign status. In order to find the right balance between not supporting Taiwan outrightly to the detriment of U.S.-Sino relations and maintaining U.S. credibility under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S. must engage with Taiwan by developing its aerial reconnaissance abilities through improved drone technology and providing support for its cyber-defense capabilities. With such an approach, it can be inferred that there will be pushback from the PRC to the effect that the U.S. is unnecessarily involving itself in China’s domestic affairs. After all, the PRC even criticized just the thought of the U.S. potentially changing the name of Taiwan’s de-facto embassy in Washington D.C. from the ‘Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office’ to the ‘Taiwan Representative Office’.
However, these two policy approaches, while on the surface may seem detrimental to maintaining the status quo, actually work in the long-term to advance U.S. strategic interests in the region. This is the case because it allows the U.S. to demonstrate to the global community that it is still more than willing to involve itself in situations in which the preservation of democracy is at stake, even with recent foreign policy blunders in the Middle East. It also helps to reassure our Taiwanese allies by ensuring that they have not been left out in the rain in terms of U.S. foreign policy priorities. By ensuring that U.S. commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid through these asymmetric approaches, it provides the U.S. with greater leverage over Taiwan to prevent it from shifting the geopolitical status quo, especially by declaring official independence from the PRC, while also preventing Taiwan from falling more and more under the PRC’s umbrella of influence, either because of misinformation campaigns or a sense of abandonment.
It is evident that the U.S. strategy towards Taiwan is far from perfect. This imperfection was recently illustrated by President Biden’s seeming re-interpretation of U.S. strategic ambiguity towards Taiwan, causing tense handwringing on both sides of the Pacific. Nevertheless, defending Taiwan is and should be a priority for the U.S., both because it addresses U.S. interests and deters unnecessary conflict with the PRC.