Deterrence by denial is the best strategy for defending Taiwan, and it can be helped by the United States as is being done in Ukraine in fighting off Russia’s invasion, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said Thursday.
“Taiwan is a defensible island. We just need to help the Taiwanese to defend it a little bit better,” Milley said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the 2023 U.S. defense budget in response to a question from Senator Rick Scott on whether the proposed 2023 funding was enough to deter China’s military expansion.
He noted that “the best defense of Taiwan is done by the Taiwanese” with U.S. support, and that the key to deterrence was to “make sure that the Chinese know that if they were to attack Taiwan, it’s a very, very difficult objective to take.”
Milley believed there were several lessons coming out of Ukraine that China has taken very seriously, including the challenges of conducting an amphibious or air assault on Taiwan with its millions of people.
In his written testimony, Milley said China has and continues to develop significant nuclear, space, cyber, land, air, and maritime military capabilities, and that “they are working every day to close the technology gap with the U.S. and its allies.”
“In short, they remain intent on fundamentally revising the global international order in their favor by mid-century, they intend to be a military peer of the U.S. by 2035, and they intend to develop the military capabilities to seize Taiwan by 2027,” Milley said.
Also responding to a question asked by Scott, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin defended the spending proposal, saying its focus on investments in such areas as technology, cyberspace, and undersea capabilities would help with deterring China and confronting the existing challenge of Russia.
He said the U.S. considered China to be “a now and forever problem in terms of a challenge” that will evolve over time.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel