Opportunities for Taiwan's Security, the Indigenous Submarine, and U.S. Policy

The security relationship between Taiwan and the United States has endured decades. The United States remains committed to Taiwan’s security and has demonstrated as much with the sale of military equipment and other tangible support, as provisioned under the Taiwan Relations Act. Today, the People’s Republic of China continues to flex its growing diplomatic, political, and military muscle in the region, accelerating the development of its naval forces, including surface, subsurface, and amphibious capabilities. These present a challenge not only to Taiwan’s security, but also to the standing of the U.S. Navy in the western Pacific. To adapt, Taiwan has initiated its own programs, including the development of domestically designed and built submarines.

On June 22, Hudson Institute’s Center for American Seapower hosted a distinguished panel of experts to examine the evolving U.S.-Taiwan security relationship. The discussion looked at the PRC’s naval and amphibious threats to the balance of power in the western Pacific, what the U.S. can do to further support the Taiwanese military with weapons sales and technical assistance, and how U.S. policy can promote Taiwanese defense in the future.

The panel featured Dr. Craig Hooper, senior analyst at Gryphon Scientific; Dr. Stephen Bryen, a senior fellow at the American Center for Democracy; and Michael Mazza, research fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Dr. Seth Cropsey, the director of Hudson Institute’s Center for American Seapower, moderated the discussion.