The Indo Pacific security environment in 2023 stands unprecedently threatened by the persistent propensity of Chinese President Xi Jinping to generate strategic turbulence emanating from the exponential rise in China's military arsenal.
President Xi's propensity for provocative armed conflicts on China's peripheries commenced with establishing 'Full Spectrum Dominance' over South China Sea during 2013-2022 and thereafter undisguised threats of 'Military Reunification of Taiwan with Mainland'.
The year 2023 has been marked with high-voltage political and military coercion by Xi's China spurred by Russia's invasion of Ukraine notwithstanding United States implicit policy of military strengthening of Taiwan's capacity to defend itself against Communist Chinese aggression.
Chinese President Xi's brazen threats of military annexation of Taiwan stem from the "Strategic Ambiguity" policies on Taiwan that United States adopted ever since President Nixon under misguided prodding of his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who "Mortgaged US Security Interests to China" hoping to de-link China from Former Soviet Union.
United States such impulses resulted in Taiwan Relations Act (April 1979) whose end result was United States breaking of formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan and scrapping the 25-year-old US-Taiwan Mutual Defense Treaty which was a US Shield for Taiwan against Communist China thus far.
Fast forward to 2023, despite China's open 'Taiwan Invasion Threats' the United States has not displayed any indicators in adopting "Dissuasion and Compellance" strategies to impose deterrence on China's aggressive impulses on Taiwan.
United States problem in this direction lies on American reluctance to dispense with its 'Strategic Ambiguity' on Taiwan.
In 2023, the looming China Threat in Indo Pacific palpably felt from South Korea to India and more intensely focused on Taiwan springs strategic imperatives for United States to manifest "Strategic Clarity" in terms of its firm intentions to militarily intervene in event of Communist China's military invasion of Taiwan.
US President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken have recently made the right noises in this direction, but these are not enough to deter China and China's 21st Century Emperor.
The US self-imposed restraints in Taiwan Relations Act have outlived their strategic utility. These restraints are no longer valid as China has not reciprocated US hopes of Cross-Strait's security and stability of Taiwan's security.
On the contrary, China stands further emboldened by these self-imposed US restraints shackles.
The United States needs three forceful steps in this direction, namely, (1) Renounce US "One China Policy; (2) Establish Full Diplomatic Relations with Taiwan (3) Sign a US-Taiwan Mutual Security Treaty forthwith.
Concluding, the above steps will not only deter China from Taiwan's Military Invasion but also galvanize Indo Pacific Nations more solidly to back US-led Indo Pacific Security Template "assured" of United States determination to checkmate the all-encompassing China Theat.
"Strategic Ambiguity" is a weapon of less powerful Nations as a policy ploy and therefore does not behoove the United States as the only globally powerful Nation.
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