Page 16 - Rethinking China Policy

Rethinking China Policy

U.S. Navy leadership has pioneered the concept of building integrated kill webs which can allow for presence
assets to integrate across the extended battlespace to provide for an integrated “no platform fights alone”
multi sensor-shooter solutions. Taiwan can be seamlessly integrated in to a Pacific Island deterrence strategy
with the political will expressed by President Elect Donald Trump.In our discussions with the new head N-9,
Rear Admiral Manazir, he highlighted the key role of shaping integrated forces across a distributed
operational area.

It is clear that both the Air Force, the Navy and Marine Corps team are focused on shaping the force for the
high-end fight against peer competitors.

The Army’s main contribution in such considerations is the expanding and evolving role of Army Air Defense
(ADA) Missile Defense systems. But in so doing, the focus is upon shaping a modular, agile force, which can
operate across the spectrum of military operations; not just be honed simply for the high-end fight.

It is about shaping platforms into an integrated force, which can deliver lethal and non-lethal effects
throughout the battlespace.

http://breakingdefense.com/2016/10/rear-adm-manazir-speaks-on-allied-force-transformation-a2ad/
It is clear that Taiwan can enter easily into a force structure operating in terms of distributed defense with a
deterrence in depth approach. One can start doing so by involving them in various security efforts associated
with allied coast guard forces in the region.

They can become a regular participant as a presence force associated with allied and U.S. security
operations.

Their involvement with their Air Force and Navy in engaging in partnership in the evolving distributed
approach to an integrated Pacific defense strategy is important. And over time their Air Force and Navy can
fit into a strategy, clearly designed for defense.

To defend against a PRC pushing out its military capability into the Pacific, a Taiwan isolated unto itself and
NOT part of an overall deterrence in depth force generated by the US, Japan and Australia will simply leave
it as a an apple to be plucked from the tree for an aggressive and assertive Beijing government.

President Elect Donald Trump’s phone call put a very powerful marker down for a new chapter in
deterring the PRC.
As we wrote in our book on Pacific strategy published three years ago, Taiwan is considered by Beijing from
the perspective of holding together their control over the centrifugal forces in their empire; and we can
consider as clearly part of a strategy to do the opposite.

“The conflict with Taiwan is subsumed in Chinese thinking as part of the core territorial-integrity challenges.

The Island of Formosa was part of China since its conquest in the Qing Dynasty in the 17th century. It was
ceded to Japan in 1895 and returned to China after the war.

In the ensuing Chinese civil war, the forces of Chiang Kai-shek were pushed off the Chinese mainland and
relocated to Formosa. Here the Republic of China was established.

Over time, the Republic of China has evolved into a vibrant democracy, and it is the quality of Taiwan as a
modern democracy that is a major challenge to the authoritarian Chinese leadership on the mainland.”

Second Line of Defense

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