Strengthen Taiwan defences but keep strategic ambiguity: US officials
- Senate foreign relations committee hears support for the island is ‘urgent task’ against Beijing’s ‘intentionally provocative’ actions
- Bipartisan support for hardline approach, but senior officials see little deterrence value in shifting to more defined policy
Assistant defence secretary Ely Ratner told the Senate foreign relations committee that Taiwan should work to defend itself using “credible, resilient, mobile, distributed and cost-effective” asymmetric capabilities.
He was joined by assistant secretary of state Daniel Kritenbrink at a hearing where senators from both parties pressed for a hard line against what they consider Beijing’s increasingly aggressive stance towards the island under President Xi Jinping.
“This is not a partisan matter, this is a matter that’s important to all of us,” Republican Senator James Risch of Idaho said.
Kritenbrink said the US should also help Taiwan resist economic coercion from the mainland and expand the island’s diplomatic space. Asked how Beijing seeks to influence the island, Kritenbrink said its approach included “activities inside Taiwan”, declining to offer additional details.
The hearing comes as Biden administration officials have grown increasingly concerned about Beijing’s intentions towards Taiwan, which China views as part of its territory.
Fresh uncertainty over US ‘strategic ambiguity’ policy on Taiwan
China’s military has used missile tests, fighter jet incursions and naval patrols to put political pressure on Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
Ratner and Kritenbrink defended the historic US policy of “strategic ambiguity” towards Taiwan, which is deliberately vague about whether the American military would come to the island’s defence in case of attack.
Ratner said a shift to a more defined policy would “not meaningfully strengthen deterrence”.
