Markus Garlauskas
TAIPEI—I landed in Taiwan amid a war—fortunately, only a war of narratives so far. What I found during my visit was very different from what this narrative war would suggest. My observations underscored the need for the United States and its friends and allies to encourage and enable Taiwan to increase military self-reliance. At the same time, Taiwan’s friends should demonstrate an expanding international capability and willingness to aid Taiwan’s defense if China attacks—as with the political and military moves Japan is taking under Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae.
I arrived in Taipei just before US President Donald Trump’s latest trip to East Asia, amid worries in Taiwan and in Washington that he would “sell out” Taiwan during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea. These worries proved to be overblown, with Taiwan apparently going unmentioned in the meeting, according to Trump. Meanwhile, other Americans have worried that the United States will be dragged into a supposedly unwinnable war over Taiwan, particularly if Washington does not find a way to reach a “stabilizing” accommodation with Beijing over Taiwan and restrain Taipei.
As part of this debate, two misleading lines of attack against Taiwan’s leadership have swept through Washington policy debates in recent weeks. Both incorrectly paint the self-ruling democracy as a liability to US security, but each comes at it from a different angle.
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