US warns China against attacking Taiwan, stressing American ‘ambiguity’
- China’s naval build-up is probably the biggest since Germany’s before World War I, US national security adviser Robert O’Brien says
- But he says amphibious landings are notoriously difficult and cites the US policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ on defending Taiwan
Robert O’Brien told an event at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas that China was engaged in a massive naval build-up probably not seen since Germany’s attempt to compete with Britain’s Royal Navy before World War I.
“Part of that is to give them the ability to push us back out of the Western Pacific, and allow them to engage in an amphibious landing in Taiwan,” he said.
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“It’s not an easy task, and there’s also a lot of ambiguity about what the United States would do in response to an attack by China on Taiwan,” he said when asked what the US’ options would be if the Beijing government moved to try to absorb the self-ruled island, which it regards as a breakaway province and has vowed to bring under its control, by force if necessary.
O’Brien was referring to a long-standing US policy of “strategic ambiguity” on the question of whether it would intervene to protect Taiwan.