Three experts on U.S. role and response options in Taiwan-China conflict

Nick Schifrin:

So, should the United States be more clear about whether or not it would defend Taiwan? Should the U.S. even come to Taiwan's defense?

For that, we get three views.

Richard Haass is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations and has served in a number of jobs at the State Department and National Security Council staff since the 1980s. Bonnie Glaser is the director of the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund. She's written extensively about U.S.-China relations. And Charles Glaser, not related to Bonnie Glaser, is professor of political science and director of the Institute for Security and Conflict at George Washington University.

Welcome to all three of you. Thank you very much.

Richard Haass, let me start with you.

Has U.S. policy of ambiguity about whether it would defend Taiwan from Chinese invasion run its course?

Richard Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations: Well, it's worked well for about four decades.

The Chinese have not been able to dismiss the possibility we would come to Taiwan's defense. Taiwan could not be assured we would, and that's kept everybody essentially on their heels a bit. The problem now is, China has built up its military significantly. It's got real capabilities to overwhelm Taiwan if left alone.

And there's real doubts in China's mind about America's willingness to come to Taiwan's aid. They look at what's happened in Afghanistan. They look earlier at what we did with the Kurds, the red line and Syria, how we didn't respond to Hong Kong, how we didn't respond to Crimea. So there's a lot of people in China who think there's a major opportunity.

So I would essentially say we need to be much more explicit about our willingness to come to Taiwan's defense. Our allies in the region, Japan, Australia and others, are expecting that, want to see that.

And I much prefer to deter China through certainty, through specificity, through clarity, rather than leaving this up to ambiguity.

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