China’s military modernisation poses Taiwan threat, say US officials

China’s accelerated military modernisation poses a clear and growing threat to Taiwan, US defence officials say.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin reviews an honour guard on his arrival in Tokyo on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

China’s accelerated military modernisation poses a clear and growing threat to Taiwan, and US intervention might only risk intensifying pressure from Beijing, US defence officials say.

Washington’s top US military officer in Asia-Pacific, Admiral Philip Davidson, made waves last week by warning that Beijing could seek to invade Taiwan within six years.

And as Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin makes Asia the target of his first overseas trip, US defence officials have hammered home the threat they see posed by Beijing’s rapid military build-up.

“Preparing for Taiwan contingencies has been a focus in China’s military modernisation for some time,” acting assistant secretary of defence for Indo-­Pacific security affairs David Helvey said as Mr Austin headed to Tokyo.

“So as their capabilities are increasing, obviously we are paying very careful attention to the military balance in the Taiwan strait.”

Beijing’s ambitions in the region are expected to top Defence Secretary Austin’s agenda in talks with allies in Tokyo, Seoul and New Delhi. Beijing claims Taiwan and surrounding waters as its own territory, and last week Admiral Davidson warned the threat of invasion there was “manifest during this decade, in fact, in the next six years”.

Beijing dismissed those claims, but a senior US defence official pointed on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) to China’s efforts to step up its naval capacity, despite the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Just in 2020, in the midst of all the COVID-related stuff, China still commissioned 25 major new ships — and these were not tug boats or patrol boats,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “These were cruisers, and destroyers and frigates and amphibs and ballistic-missile submarines.”

Democratic and self-ruled Taiwan split from China at the end of a civil war in 1949 and exists under the constant threat of invasion by the mainland.

Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, but remains the island’s most important unofficial ally and military backer.

And a second senior US ­defence official said on Monday that Washington would take a measured approach to the issue.

“There is a balance,” he said. “We do not view a violent invasion of Taiwan as good for anybody.”

But, “militarily, we know that if we do too much, push too hard, China will use that optic and they’ll do more against Taiwan”.

President Joe Biden’s administration has also dispatched Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region for talks with allies alongside Mr Austin.

AFP