Taiwan Could Be America’s ‘Maritime Israel,’ Says Taipei Defense Guru

John Feng
19 January 2021

Taiwan, a self-governing democracy claimed by Beijing, has existed for decades on the front lines of the once theoretical “China threat”—now very much a reality following a recent “awakening” by America’s political elite, said senior analyst Su Tzu-yun.

A national security expert, Su is director of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei. INDSR was founded with funding support from President Tsai Ing-wen’s government and is the country’s first defense think tank.

Washington’s prescient Beijing watchers, including recent President-elect Joe Biden appointee Kurt Campbell, were already wary of the Chinese Communist Party’s expansionist ambitions in the 1990s, Su said. It was a time when, despite incidents like 1989’s Tiananmen Square Massacre, the United States and its allies were still idealizing future relations with China, which they hoped—maybe even expected—would evolve into a more liberal state.

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