Category: China

It seems to me that President Biden is making it pretty clear that the U.S. will defend Taiwan if it is attacked by China:

President Joe Biden on Sunday for the second time this year said U.S. troops would help defend Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion, further casting doubt on the United States’ policy of “strategic ambiguity” regarding the island democracy.

Biden in an interview broadcast on CBS’ “60 Minutes” said the U.S. remains committed to the “One China” policy that acknowledges Beijing’s claim over Taiwan but considers the island’s status unresolved.

However, in the case of an “unprecedented attack,” U.S. troops would intervene, the president said.

An unnamed White House spokesman later said official U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan has not changed, CNBC reported Monday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The President of the think tank, the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, Dr. Choi Kang has an op-ed in the Chosun Ilbo advocating for using the Three No’s policy to pressure China to reign in North Korea’s nuclear testing:

If necessary, we could officially declare that South Korea is no longer bound by the ‘THAAD Three No’s’ given North Korea’s repeated nuclear and missile threats.  If North Korea conducts another nuclear or missile test in the future, it could constitute a just cause for renouncing the ‘THAAD Three No’s.’  Given China has failed to prevent North Korea from advancing its nuclear capabilities, its rationale for THAAD opposition is weakened.

Recently, President Xi Jinping said that “those who play with fire will eventually get burned.” Instead of trying to impose the ‘THAAD Three No’s’ on South Korea, China should sternly warn North Korea, which has played with fire for the past 16 years since its first nuclear test in 2006.

Asan Institute

You can read more at the link.

People definitely need to get out of their minds that a war with China in defense of Taiwan will be anything like the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Thousands could die in a single strike on a U.S. aircraft carrier or other ships and that is what this war game is demonstrating:

The game umpires include two doctoral students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a former Marine captain and Eric Heginbotham, a principal research scientist with MIT’s Center for International Studies and author of five books and numerous articles on China’s military power. Overseeing the project is Mark Cancian, a CSIS senior advisor and retired Marine colonel.

Some variants had Japan involved from the start. The Philippines allowed U.S. basing in some iterations, but not others. Game moderators permitted U.S. strikes on mainland China in some, but not others.

Throughout the week the game always reaches a stopping point where the players know the likely outcome and, nearly always within the roughly three-week timeframe of simulated combat, it reaches a stalemate on Taiwan between U.S. and Chinese ground forces. (……)

On the first U.S. turn, the players lost an entire aircraft carrier, though it was on the board from the “baseline” opening and not that team’s choice to have it where it was located. In a version earlier in the week, the United States lost 700 aircraft over the three-week battle.

None of these provided a pretty outcome, but in each of the versions, the United States prevailed, Cancian said.

Army Times

You can read more at the link, but these war games are showing the U.S. can win in the near term such conflict at great cost, however 10 years from now would that still be the case?

The Chinese continue to spew their anti-THAAD propaganda for their useful idiots to continue to champion; fortunately the ROK government continues to dismiss it:

South Korea’s defense minister said, Thursday, a U.S. anti-missile shield, currently deployed on the Korean Peninsula, cannot operate to Washington’s advantage, rejecting China’s claim that the system’s radar can spy on its military maneuvers and undermine its security interests.

In addition, Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup vowed to speed up efforts to transform the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) base in South Korea into a permanent structure. 

Since the establishment of the base in 2017 at a local golf course, hundreds of U.S. and South Korean service members stationed there have been using shipping containers and an old golf clubhouse, raising concerns over their poor living conditions. 

The deployment of the THAAD battery has emerged as a hot-button issue between Seoul and Beijing, as evidenced by their foreign ministerial meeting, Tuesday, where it topped the agenda. 

“The THAAD issue has to do with our security and sovereignty and China’s assertion is not acceptable,” Lee said during a press conference at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Chinese hypocrisy over THAAD continues to be so obvious. They continue to be against the THAAD system in the ROK because they claim it is against Chinese security interests while completely ignoring ROK security interests.  If it wasn’t for the Chinese backing of their client state North Korea that has allowed them to pursue missiles and nuclear weapons to threaten the ROK, the deployment of THAAD to South Korea would not be necessary in the first place.

I think this makes clear that something I said before wasn’t going to happen, is in fact not going to happen; South Korea is not getting a second THAAD battery:

The top diplomats of South Korea and China agreed during their talks Tuesday that disputes over the issue of an advanced U.S. missile defense system should no longer hamper Seoul-Beijing relations, a South Korean official said.

In his first trip to China since taking office in May, Foreign Minister Park Jin held the meeting with his counterpart, Wang Yi, in the eastern port city of Qingdao.

It was widely viewed as crucial in setting the tone for Seoul-Beijing relations under the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol administration.

During the talks, both Park and Wang “clearly expressed their positions on THAAD, and at the same time, they shared the same view that the matter should not be an obstacle to the development of South Korea-China relations, going forward,” the official told reporters on the customary condition of anonymity.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If anyone was wondering why President Yoon snubbed Nancy Pelosi during her visit to South Korea, here is the reason:

The top South Korean and Chinese diplomats pledged Thursday to develop closer relations and maintain stable industrial supply chains at a time of deepening rivalry between Beijing and Washington.

South Korea, a longtime U.S. ally, is struggling to strike a balance between Washington and the increasingly assertive foreign policy of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government. U.S.-Chinese conflict over Taiwan has added to complications for governments that want amicable ties with both sides.

Foreign Ministers Park Jin and Wang Yi, in separate statements, called for the development of relations based on successful three-decade-old commercial ties. They were meeting in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.