Bolton in January: US should play 'Taiwan Card' against China

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For a new US president willing to act boldly, there are opportunities to halt and then reverse China’s seemingly inexorable march toward hegemony in East Asia. Playing the “China card” in the times of former US president Richard Nixon made sense, but the reflexive, near-addictive adherence to pro-China policies since then has become unwise and increasingly risky.

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An alternative now would be to play the “Taiwan card” against China. The US should insist that China reverse its territorial acquisitiveness, including abandoning its South China Sea bases and undoing the ecological damage construction there has caused. China is free to continue asserting its territorial claims diplomatically, but until they are peacefully resolved with its neighbors, Asian nations and the US are likewise free to ignore such claims in their entirety.

If Beijing is not willing to back down, the US has a diplomatic ladder of escalation that would compel it to pay attention. The new US administration could start by receiving Taiwanese diplomats officially at the US Department of State; upgrading the status of US representation in Taipei from a private “institute” to an official diplomatic mission; inviting the president to travel officially to the US; allowing the most senior US officials to visit Taiwan to transact government business; and ultimately restoring full diplomatic recognition.

Beijing’s leaders would be appalled by this approach, as the US is appalled by their maritime territorial aggression. China must understand that creating so-called provinces risks causing itself to lose control, perhaps forever, of another so-called province.

Too many foreigners continue echoing Beijing’s view that Taiwan is a problem only resolvable by uniting the two sides as “one China,” but Taiwan’s freedom is not a problem. It is an inspiration. Let Beijing contemplate that fact.

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