“I think, Taiwan should pay us for defense.
You know, we’re no different than an insurance company. Taiwan doesn’t give us anything,” Mr. Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek. He complained that Taiwan “took our chip business.” Why “are we doing this?” Mr. Trump also offered a geography lesson. “Taiwan is 9,500 miles away” while it’s “68 miles away from China.”
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton recalls similar lines from Mr. Trump in his White House memoir, and you can be sure Beijing read Mr. Bolton’s book. Mr. Trump’s words won’t enhance U.S. deterrence.
Taiwan is increasing its defense spending and has extended conscription, albeit modestly. Yet Beijing has been mounting the largest military buildup since World War II, which the U.S. hasn’t countered with its own rearmament. Taiwan would struggle to defend itself alone from an amphibious assault or blockade even with heroic military effort.
But since Mr. Trump is wondering why the U.S. would bother with Taiwan, we’ll explain, and the answer isn’t only semiconductors. The fall of Taiwan to the Communist Party would mark the end of America’s Pacific alliance system, which has produced 80 years of mostly peace.
Beijing is also provoking a fight in the South China Sea with the Philippines, which the U.S. is bound by treaty to defend.
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