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Blog Editor’s Note: We heartily agree with the theme that China is likely the greatest threat in the long term. Also with the need to begin acting NOW so that America will be better protected in the future.
And the best (only?) way to do that is not business as usual, but with a specific, articulated, and funded project.
Administrations must have the courage and foresight to plant trees in the shade of which they will never sit.
Op-ed | Russian Invasion of Ukraine Reinforces the Urgency of Fixing U.S. Satellite Vulnerability by 2027
by Brian G. Chow and Brandon W. Kelley — March 8, 2022
Over the last two weeks, many commentators have warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may portend dark things to come for Taiwan. Yet the key question the United States now faces has remained unanswered: what new actions should the U.S. undertake now to decrease the odds of conflict in the Taiwan Strait?
Given current preparations by China and the United States to develop the needed capability to seize or save Taiwan respectively, nothing short of a crash program — analogous to President Kennedy’s 1962 American-on-the-Moon challenge and quickly announced by President Biden — is likely to allow “the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait differences” as called for by the U.S.’s 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. While the current détente has held for many years, that may not remain the case for much longer. Last June, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testified before Congress that President Xi Jinping had ordered the Chinese military to accelerate its timeline for attaining the operational capability to seize Taiwan by force from 2035 to 2027.
