Time for the US to rethink its defence stand on Taiwan, former US Pacific Command chief says

United States should be clearer on its responsibilities to the island as Beijing seeks to dominate it, Harry Harris says

Strategic ambiguity should not be maintained just because it has been the policy since the 1970s, he says

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The policy of strategic ambiguity is meant to deter Beijing from using force against Taiwan. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:06pm, 8 Sep 2021Updated: 9:44pm, 8 Sep 2021

Former US Pacific Command chief Harry Harris has called on Washington to reassess its long-standing policy of keeping its commitment to Taiwan’s defence ambiguous, warning that Beijing is seeking to “dominate” the self-ruled island.

Harris, the US ambassador to South Korea until January, said mainland China was on a quest to “first isolate and then dominate Taiwan”.

The US administration of President Joe Biden has demanded that Beijing cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure against Taiwan, while helping the island to maintain a “sufficient self-defense capability” such as through arms sales.

At the same time, the US government has maintained an ambiguous position regarding the use of military force in response to an attack by mainland China on Taiwan, a tactic known as “strategic ambiguity”.

But Harris said: “We should reconsider this, our long-standing policy of strategic ambiguity.”

“If, at the end of that ... reassessment, we keep the same policy, that’s fine. But we shouldn’t keep it simply because we’ve done it that way since the late 1970s.”