FPI / April 22, 2021
By Richard Fisher
American allies are beginning to consider how they would militarily support the United States in the event it must respond to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. This after decades of encouragement which has recently become more urgent.
The Australian Defense Forces were considering the kinds of forces that it would commit to a Taiwan conflict in support of its main defense ally the United States, according to an April 16 report in the Australian Financial Review.
The report noted, “Options include contributing to an allied effort with submarines, as well as maritime surveillance aircraft, air-to-air refuellers and potentially Super Hornet fighters operating from U.S. bases in Guam or the Philippines, and even Japan.”
As China began to blatantly interfere in Australian politics a broad Australian push-back emerged, prompting the Chinese Communist Party to exercise economic coercion to impose import restrictions on Australian products like coal and wine.
After a year of China’s combined political-economic coercive pressure, on top of China’s refusal to take responsibility for its part in the Wuhan Coronavirus, its suppression of Hong Kong’s democratic culture and its increasingly clear hegemonic ambitions, the Australian governing elite is coming to the conclusion that a free Taiwan also promotes the security of Australians.
Even though decades after U.S. urging, that Australia is considering the military forces to be sent in the event of a Taiwan military emergency in encouraging. However, Washington will need to continue efforts to build a public commitment from Japan that matches the dangers it will face from a Chinese attack against Taiwan.
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