FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 24, 2023
Contact: press@defensepriorities.org
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, Taiwan began its annual Han Kuang military exercise which plans to strategize defending Taiwan’s busiest airport and simulate breaking a Chinese naval blockade. Defense Priorities Director of Asia Engagement Lyle Goldstein issued the following statement in response:
“Taiwan’s new realism within its annual Han Kuang war games is reassuring. For far too long, the island’s residents seemed not to take their own security with adequate seriousness, as demonstrated by decades of minimal defense spending and weak reserve training. Military experts have long recommended an asymmetric strategy for Taiwan’s defense, but reforms have been generally held up by the island’s entrenched bureaucratic interests.
“Taiwan not only needs a new, more efficient defense strategy, but also a viable political strategy that adheres closely to the status quo. Here, there are major dangers on the horizon, and the planned visit of Vice President Lai Ching-te to the United States in August represents an unwise, symbolic gesture that threatens yet another round of military escalation across the Taiwan Strait. In the interest of safeguarding peace and stability, Washington should favor cautious adherence to strategic ambiguity along with the longstanding One China policy—the twin U.S. policies that have kept the peace in the Western Pacific for more than half a century.”
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