Taiwan: Still worth our defense

Today, April 10, is the 30 anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act. For three decades, the TRA has served the people of Taiwan and America well.

On April 10, 1979, shortly after Jimmy Carter severed U.S. relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan, in favor of the People's Republic (so-called), Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act.

Jacob Javits, then New York's senior senator, explained: "We could no longer operate under the fiction that the government in Taipei was the government of all China, but neither could we ignore the fact that the people of Taiwan had been our friends and allies for decades and that we had assisted in protecting them from domination by the communist regime on the mainland."

The Taiwan Relations Act declares that it is U.S. policy "to make clear that the United States' decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means (and) to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including boycotts and embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific and of grave concern to the United States."

In furtherance thereof, it pledges that "the United States will make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability."

The intervening decades have brought a sea change in both the Republic of China on Taiwan and the People's Republic.

Expert on Mainland lists reasons for concern over Beijing's plans in "China: The Gathering Threat"

In 1979, both China and Taiwan were economic backwaters. China's military was antiquated. Taiwan was ruled by a mostly benevolent dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek and his nationalists, exiles from the mainland after China's civil war.

Since then, China's economy has exploded. Its Gross Domestic Product increased from $1.95 trillion in 2000 to an estimated $4.19 trillion in 2008.

Driven by revenue from foreign trade (a surplus of $290 billion in 2008), Beijing's military budget has increased by double digits for at least the past two decades – and that's what Beijing admits to spending.

However, it remains the same wretched totalitarian state it was in 1979 – witness Tiananmen Square, the brutal suppression of a harmless meditation cult, draconian population control and the ongoing oppression of Tibet.

In Taiwan, democratic reform has kept pace with economic progress. From 1980 to 2007, the ROC's GDP grew nine-fold, from $42.3 billion to $393.8 billion – this in a nation of 23 million.

Taiwan has the world's 17th-largest economy, is the 16th-largest trading nation and is the largest holder of foreign reserves. It's also America's ninth-largest trading partner. In 2007, its imports from the United States totaled $26 billion.

Within a decade of the TRA's enactment, Taiwan began the process of political change. Today, it's one of the most democratic nations in Asia. Since 2000, there have been two transfers of power between the major parties. Taiwanese enjoy the full array of civil liberties found in older democracies.

One more dramatic change since 1979 is the rise of China as a military power to be reckoned with.

The latest congressionally mandated, Defense Department report ("Military Power of the People's Republic of China 2009"), 74 pages long, makes grim reading. In missiles, missile defense, anti-satellite measures, combat aircraft and cyber warfare, China is approaching the point where it can match anything the United States could throw against it in the South China Sea.

Much of that might is directed at Taiwan. More than one-third of China's military force is deployed in the area of the Taiwan Strait, along with half its navy. The Pentagon report estimates that China now has at least 1,050 short-range ballistic missiles targeting Taiwan, an arsenal that grows by 100 a year.

Testifying before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee in February, the U.S. naval intelligence director, retired Adm. Denis C. Blair, observed: "Beijing has not renounced the use of force against the island, and China's leaders see maintaining the goal of unification as vital to regime legitimacy. Preparations for a possible Taiwan conflict continue to drive the modernization goals of (the People's Liberation Army) and the Chinese defense-industrial complex."

Some will argue that our defense commitment to Taiwan is an anachronism, especially when the current government seeks warmer relations with the mainland.

But, the TRA is a pledge to the people of Taiwan, not to the government in power. And the efforts of Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou to defuse tensions between the two Chinas have not deterred Beijing from its military or diplomatic course of coercion combined with isolation of the ROC.

Try to imagine the strategic situation in Asia if China ever achieved its goal of annexing Taiwan.

The People's Republic would then control both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan's economic engine would be harnessed to Beijing's. Its foreign reserves would become the property of the PRC. Taiwan's airfields and harbors would be used to project China's power south and west.

Our other Asian allies would likely defect. If we deserted Taiwan, after guaranteeing its freedom for 30 years, who would trust us?

Some in Washington understand this reality.

Late last month, the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to reaffirm the terms of the TRA. The resolution, sponsored by the 150-member, bipartisan Taiwan Caucus, resolved that Congress "reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act as the cornerstone of U.S. relations with Taiwan." This elicited the predictable chest-thumping from China's Xinhua news agency, which called the resolution a "gross interference in China's internal affairs."

A few days later, a group of 30 senators sent a letter to President Obama urging him to join them "in expressing our nation's continued support for freedom, security and prosperity for the people of Taiwan."

The letter goes on to observe: "The U.S. has maintained a unique and close partnership with Taiwan for over 60 years. Taiwan is one of our strongest allies in Asia and has become a beacon of democracy and economic growth in a rapidly evolving and vital region for the U.S."

No word on this request from the White House, where the president is busy practicing genuflecting to foreign despots.

Besides endorsing the terms of the TRA, Washington could give it concrete expression by approving the sale of the advanced F-16 C/D class fighters Taipei has been trying to buy for years. The ROC air force now consists largely of museum-quality F-5 fighters, in service for over 30 years.

The members of Congress who passed the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979 little realized that it would be even more relevant today than it was then.

It's hard to imagine a piece of legislation that's done more to keep the peace in a region vital to our national interests – and secure the liberty of a people – than the Taiwan Relations Act.