Taiwan, after all, is right alongside China. Getting into any military engagement with the Chinese, or bringing its navy in so close as to expose it to Chinese missiles, would run enormous risks, including of a wider shooting war the results of which one could not predict. That means the US will supply arms and equipment to a Taiwanese resistance, almost certainly promote a strong world reaction to it, and probably, with or without UN support, promote sanctions, boycotts and attempts to punish China’s trade. In recent times, President Joe Biden has seemed to suggest that America might fight alongside the Taiwanese.īut every time he has used loose words with this implication, the US Administration has “clarified” his remarks to say that the US position on involvement has not changed. Indeed, until recently, even the United States has been deliberately ambiguous about what it would do if China turned up the heat on the issue - whether by shooting down Taiwanese aircraft, sending missiles towards population centres, or even in setting out for an amphibious landing. Much as Australia has counselled China against forcible reunion over the years, we have never previously indicated that an invasion would be an act of war. Likewise with Australia, which has recently declared that it was prepared to fight alongside Americans and Taiwanese against any takeover. One can more or less take it as read that the United States does not want to go to war with China over Taiwan, even if China’s 70-year-old belligerence about reuniting with its rebel province by force comes to actual hostilities. But world reaction to such a breach of the peace would likely be great. (Image: AP/Andrew Harnik)Ĭhina could contemplate seizing the island to demonstrate American decline. US President Joe Biden: a lot more must be done to regain the region's confidence in the consistency and reliability of US policies.
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