Taiwan by John Yoo

Very recommendable!



" ... Rather than bend to China’s pressure on Taiwan, the United States should consider rebuilding its military and political ties to the island. Taiwan, which General Douglas MacArthur once called “an unsinkable aircraft carrier,” occupies a vital strategic position in the region. Not only does it sit 100 miles off the Chinese mainland, but it is also 200 miles from the Philippines, 700 miles from Japan, and 900 miles from Vietnam. Taiwan plays the forward position in the “first island chain” (running from Japan, through the Ryuku Islands, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and on to Australia) that can hem in the Chinese Navy if it seeks to break out to deeper Pacific waters. ... Conversely, allowing the CCP to possess Taiwan would inflict a serious strategic blow to the United States. Beijing would gain an advanced economy, a base for its thousands of ballistic missiles, and a deep-water port from which to project power into the midst of America’s regional allies.  ... The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic only highlights the differences between Taiwanese democracy and the CCP’s authoritarianism. A mass of evidence shows that Beijing covered up the outbreak, suppressed researchers and doctors who tried to raise the alarm, and even allowed travelers from Wuhan to fly to the rest of the world even while quarantining them within China. By contrast, Taiwanese officials closely monitored the outbreak on the mainland, quickly shut off travel, and instituted a strict testing and contact tracing regime. In a country of 23 million, the Taipei government has limited the coronavirus to only 440 cases and seven deaths. ..."



Taiwan | Hoover Institution As the confrontation between the United States and China intensifies, Taiwan will occupy a pivotal place. Since becoming the site of the exiled Nationalist Chinese government after the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) conquest of mainland China in 1949, the island state has become a flourishing and prosperous liberal democracy boasting the 21st-largest economy in the world.