Protecting Taiwan Before Deterrence Fails

How can the Taiwan Policy Act help Taiwan?

Air Force soldiers clear the ground in front of an armed F-16V fighter jet during a drill at Hualien Air Force base in Hualien County, Taiwan, on Aug. 17, 2022. Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

What is missing in preparing Taiwan and the United States to protect Taiwan against the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military aggression? This article describes the basic process for the United States, the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan’s official name), their militaries to work together, and the legislation required.

Risk Analysis

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) proposes five ways an organization can respond to risk:

• Risk acceptance: Understand an identified risk, the potential cost or damage, and agree to accept the risk.
• Risk avoidance: Identify risk and decide not to engage in actions associated with the risk.
• Risk deterrence: Understand a posed threat, and inform the agent of that threat about retaliatory harm.
• Risk mitigation: Act to reduce risk.
• Risk transference/sharing: Share the risk burden with another entity, such as another country.

When two countries agree to conduct military training and exercises, they share risk and train for the possibility they will assist each other during a conflict. A minimum outcome is that both countries benefit from mutual learning based on the other’s experiences and become more efficient and effective in their lethality against a common enemy. By sharing risk, Taiwan mitigates the risk of fighting alone against China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and, one hopes, deters the CCP from ordering an invasion.

Step 1: Leadership, Political Will

Before the U.S. military can begin to fully collaborate with the ROC, senior American and Taiwanese political leaders must recognize that they have vital mutual interests to protect and use military force, if necessary.