Will to Fight: Are Americans and Chinese Ready to Die for Taiwan?
Ben Connable
Taiwan, Asia
We do not understand our own (or China’s) will to fight.
A war with China over Taiwan would generate high casualties, destabilize the global economy, and destroy billions of dollars worth of American military equipment. A strategic defeat for the United States in a war with China would be a very real possibility, though Chinese leaders face similar risks. Nonetheless, both the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are posturing for war. President Joe Biden has made escalatory diplomatic statements and deployed military advisors to Taiwan, while the PRC has stepped up its threatening military exercises. While this kind of brinksmanship is useful for strategic deterrence, it is also very risky. The United States and China could easily stumble into an unplanned high-intensity war. However, it is not at all clear that either side is psychologically prepared for such a war.
The U.S. Rationales for War
The rationale for fighting a war in defense of Taiwan has not been made clear to either the U.S. armed forces or the public. Why should Americans die for Taiwan? There is no treaty requiring the defense of Taiwan, an island that the United States does not formally recognize as an independent state.
Asking Americans to die in defense of Taiwanese democracy will be a tough sell in the wake of the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. Given the Biden administration’s argument that preserving Afghan democracy was not worth American lives—arguably an America First approach to foreign policy—why would preserving Taiwanese democracy be worth American lives? It could be difficult to answer this question without drifting into unsettling moral debates that the Biden administration might like to avoid. A compelling ideological rationale for war over Taiwan is unlikely to emerge from the government any time soon.
https://conservativeangle.com/will-to-fight-are-americans-and-chinese-ready-to-die-for-taiwan/
