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Strategic Vision vol. 6, no. 32 (April, 2017)
Potential Partnership India and Taiwan must strengthen relations to balance against China’s rise Prakash Katoch
photo: James Evans A US Navy officer provides a tour of the USS Carl Vinson to Indian Naval officers during Exercise Malabar.
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hina is obsessed with Taiwan. Both the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have made unification a high priority, especially since Taiwan holds historic importance stemming both from the Chinese Civil War and the legacy of foreign intervention. More importantly, Taiwan straddles important sea lanes and is a potential base for foreign military forces. Failure to unify Taiwan with China in the future is considered by the CCP as potentially dangerous to its political hold on the country, in addition to the loss of face the PLA would suffer. Chinese con-
cerns that Taiwan could be used as a foreign military base underscore the importance of Taiwan’s geostrategic position. In the past, there has been a great deal of speculation about whether the United States should defend Taiwan or abandon it in favor of better relations with China. However, it is clear that purely from the point of view of its geostrategic location, Washington will continue to have a great interest in maintaining the status quo between Beijing and Taipei. China, having added her first domestically built aircraft carrier, is already in the process of establishing a carrier battle
General Prakash Katoch (ret.) is a former ranking officer in the Indian Army. He can be reached for comment at prakashkatoch7@gmail.com