U.S. URGES TAIWAN TO BUY WEAPONS SUITED TO FIGHT CHINA

Move to asymmetric warfare strategy could give its military an edge

The Biden administration is quietly pressing the Taiwanese government to order U.s.-made weapons that would help its small military repel a seaborne invasion by China rather than weapons designed for conventional warfare, current and former U.S. and Taiwanese officials say.

The U.S. campaign to shape Taiwan’s defenses has grown in urgency since the Russian invasion of

Ukraine ordered in February by President Vladimir Putin. The war has convinced Washington and Taipei that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan in the coming years is now a potential danger — and that a smaller military with the right weapons that has adopted a strategy of asymmetric warfare, in which it focuses on mobility and precision attacks, can beat back a larger foe.

President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan is trying to orient the country’s military toward asymmetric warfare and has moved to buy a large number of mobile, lethal weapons that are difficult to target and counter.

The push by the Biden administration has broadened and accelerated similar efforts by officials in the Trump and Obama administrations.

Democratic and Republican officials and lawmakers say one lesson of the Ukraine war is the United States must help transform Taiwan into a “porcupine” to deter potential attacks from China.

State Department and Pentagon officials have been involved in the discussions with the Taiwanese government. Lawmakers and congressional aides have delivered similar messages. The Biden administration also sent a bipartisan delegation of five former senior national security officials to Taiwan in early March to talk to Tsai and other officials about the country’s defense strategy and weapons procurement, among other matters.

“Continuing to pursue systems that will not meaningfully contribute to an effective defense strategy is inconsistent with the evolving security threat that Taiwan faces,” a State Department representative said in a statement. “As such, the United States strongly supports Taiwan’s efforts to implement an asymmetric defense strategy.”

For decades, Communist-ruled China has vowed to bring Taiwan, a democratic island with de facto independence that is a U.S. partner, under its control. While there is no sign that war is imminent, President Xi Jinping of China has adopted a more aggressive foreign policy than his predecessors, and U.S. officials fear he might invade Taiwan to seal his legacy.