US Official Warns Beijing Against Attacking Taiwan

The US national security adviser warned Beijing overnight on Wednesday against any attempt to take Taiwan by force, saying amphibious landings were notoriously difficult and there was a lot of ambiguity about how the United States would respond.

Robert O'Brien told an event at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas that China was engaged in a massive naval buildup probably not seen since Germany's attempt to compete with Britain's Royal Navy prior to first world war.

"Part of that is to give them the ability to push us back out of the Western Pacific, and allow them to engage in an amphibious landing in Taiwan," he said.

"The problem with that is that amphibious landings are notoriously difficult," O'Brien added, pointing to the 160-km distance between the mainland and Taiwan and the paucity of landing beaches on the island.

"It's not an easy task, and there's also a lot of ambiguity about what the United States would do in response to an attack by China on Taiwan," he added, when asked what US options would be if Beijing moved to try to absorb Taiwan.

O'Brien was referring to a long-standing US policy of "strategic ambiguity" on the question of whether it would intervene to protect Taiwan.

The United States is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, but it has not made clear whether it would intervene militarily in the event of an attack, something that would likely lead to a much broader conflict with Beijing.

O'Brien repeated US calls for Taiwan to spend more on its own defence and to carry out military reforms to make clear to Beijing the risks of attempting to invade.

"You can't just spend 1% of your GDP, which the Taiwanese have been doing – 1.2% – on defence, and hope to deter a China that's been engaged in the most massive military build up in 70 years," he said.

Taiwan needed to "turn themselves into a porcupine" militarily, he said, adding: "Lions generally don't like to eat porcupines." (Reuters)