This volume brings together a range of experts from the West and from Taiwan itself who examine the key issues connected with Taiwan's air power, which is a key aspect of the China-Taiwan military balance.

This is the first explanation and evaluation of Taiwan’s defence forces and infrastructure. It examines not only Taiwan’s armed forces, but also its Ministry of National Defence, personnel issues, and civil-military relations. This book provides crucial base-line data and evaluation of one of the major participants in an ongoing crisis across the Taiwan Strait that has the potential of involving China and the United States in armed conflict. It examines the danger of a possibly nuclear conflict between China and the United States which would seriously disrupt all of East Asia. It also shows how Taiwan’s defence policies and actions do not match the threat - Taipei needs to develop and pursue realistic policies. This is essential reading for all students of East Asian security and Sino-American relations and of international and security studies in general.

Confounding expectations, Taiwan is reducing its military spending even as its sole adversary, the People?s Republic of China, modernizes its military and significantly increases its defense budget. Michael Chase examines the key factors that have shaped Taiwan?s security policy over a span of three decades.Chase explores both the role of US security assurances in formulating Taiwan?s defense policy and the profound influence that domestic politics has played. He also considers the context of cross-Strait relations and the implications of Taiwan?s security choices for potential instability and conflict in the region and beyond. Relying on extensive Chinese-language sources and interviews, he offers the most definitive treatment of Taiwan?s security policy to date.

Since at least the early 1950s, the entire Asia-Pacific region has struggled with the complicated and complex relationship between China and Taiwan--today the Taiwan question is considered a potential flashpoint for a much larger international conflict. Bringing together experts from the United States and Taiwan, Assessing the Threat provides a comprehensive look at the dangers of military escalation in the Taiwan Strait, the latest advances in capabilities of the People's Liberation Army, and China's security relationship with the United States and the Asia-Pacific. There is increasing concern that Beijing is steadily shifting the balance of power across the Taiwan Strait in its favor. Recent advances in Chinese air and naval power, along with changes in PLA doctrine, have the potential to weaken deterrence and destabilize the cross-strait military balance. At this critical juncture, there is not question that this issue requires sustained, detailed analysis and that many measures can and should be taken to reduce the threat of conflict between China, Taiwan, and the United States. Assessing the threat offers such analysis as well as concrete suggestions and crisis management practices for government and military leaders in Washington, D.C., Beijing, and Taipei.

The increased military power of China since the close of the Cold War has forced the United States to reconsider its security policy toward Taiwan. In this volume, Martin Lasater explores the many new factors that are now influencing U.S. calculations of one of its more enduring and important security interests in Asia. He considers such security concerns as the reduction of U.S. military forces in the western Pacific, a new arms race in the Taiwan Strait, Sino-American tensions over human rights and arms proliferation issues, increased calls for Taiwan's independence, the Clinton administration's concentration on domestic issues, and the shifting balance of power in the Asia Pacific—especially the PRC's growing influence. Considering the difficult issues President Clinton must weigh, Lasater provides a timely analysis of Taiwan's security in the 1990s within the broader context of Sino-American relations.

Originally published in 2000, Taiwan’s Security in the Post-Deng Xiaoping Era analyses the many domestic and international factors comprising Taiwan’s security situation in the late 1990s and early 21st Century. The security of Taiwan remains of international strategic concern, and the military situation in the Taiwan Strait is increasingly volatile, nearly 25 years after this book was first published. This detailed study concludes that Taiwan’s overall security will become increasingly dependent on external factors and that the most important contribution Taipei can make to its own security, other than military preparation, is political astuteness.

This is a new analysis of the key issues facing Chinese policy makers in their approach towards Taiwan. This is one of the most tense and potentially explosive relationships in world politics. This book explains succinctly the impetus, the methods and the consequences if China is to use force, a prospect that has become greater following the return of President Chen Shui-bian to power in Taiwan for a second term in 2004. If China Attacks Taiwan shows how in reality there can be no real winner in such an eventuality and how the consequences would be dire not just for Taiwan and China, but East Asia as a whole. Whether China will use force depends ultimately on how its policy making apparatus assess potential US intervention, whether its armed forces can subdue Taiwan and counter US military involvement, as well as on its assessment of the likely consequences. Given the extremely high probability of American involvement this volume appeals to not only scholars and students working on China, its foreign policy and the security and prosperity of East Asia, but also to policy makers and journalists interested in China’s rise and its defense policy, Taiwan’s security and development, regional stability as well as US policy toward China and the East Asia region generally. This book is essential for understanding China’s efforts to achieve a ‘peaceful rise’, which requires it to transform itself into a global power not by the actual use of force but by diplomacy backed up by rapidly expanding military power. This book is an excellent resource for all students and scholars of military and security studies, Asian (China/Taiwan) studies and international relations