China's military posture poses major challenges for Taiwan: Pentagon
ROC Central News Agency
2016/05/14 19:16:49
Taipei, May 14 (CNA) China's continued efforts to develop and deploy military capabilities intended to coerce or invade Taiwan if necessary have posed "major challenges" to Taiwan's security, the U.S. Department of Defense said in its annual report on China's military power to Congress.
In the report released Friday, the department said China's overall strategy continues to use both persuasion and coercion to hinder the development of attitudes favoring independence in Taiwan.
Despite positive developments across the Taiwan Strait last year, including the historic meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping (習近平) last November in Singapore, there have been no signs that China's military posture opposite Taiwan has changed significantly, the report said.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China "continues to develop and deploy military capabilities intended to coerce Taiwan or to attempt an invasion, if necessary," the defense department said in the "Force Modernization for A Taiwan Contingency" chapter of the report.
"These improvements pose major challenges to Taiwan's security," which has been based historically upon the PLA's inability to project power across the Taiwan Strait, the natural geographic advantages of island defense, the technological superiority of Taiwan's armed forces, and the possibility of U.S. intervention, the report said.
China sees Taiwan as part of its territory and has not renounced the use of force against Taiwan for unification, if necessary.
The report said, meanwhile, that China appears prepared to defer the use of force as long as it believes that unification over the long term remains possible and that the costs of conflict outweigh the benefits.
But China still argues that "the credible threat to use force is essential to maintain the conditions for political progress and to prevent Taiwan from making moves toward de jure independence," it said.
In the face of China's multi-decade military modernization effort that has eroded or negated many of Taiwan's historical advantages in deterring PLA aggression, Taiwan is also taking steps to respond to the threat, it added.
These include steps to build its war reserve stocks, grow its defense-industrial base, improve joint operations and crisis response capabilities, and strengthen its officer and noncommissioned officer corps, the report said, adding that these improvements partially address Taiwan's declining defensive advantages.
Noting that Taiwan's military spending has dropped to approximately 2 percent of its gross domestic product, the report said that China's official defense budget has grown to about 14 times that of Taiwan's.
"Recognizing China's continued growth in military spending, Taiwan is working to integrate innovative and asymmetric measures into its defense planning in order to counterbalance China's growing capabilities," the report said.
As for the U.S. position on cross-strait issues, the report said that Washington maintains a one-China policy that is based on the three Joint Communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
The U.S. "opposes any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait by either side and does not support Taiwan independence" and "continues to support the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues in a manner, scope, and pace acceptable to the people on both sides," the report said.
Consistent with the TRA, the U.S. has contributed to peace, security, and stability in the Taiwan Strait, including the provision of defense articles and services to help Taiwan maintain a sufficient self-defense capability, it said, adding that Washington has announced more than US$14 billion in arms sales to Taiwan since 2009.
The U.S. is Taiwan's main weapons supplier.
(By Elaine Hou)
ENDITEM/ke
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