Taiwan and the US Are in a ‘Situationship’
Washington has long been deliberately vague about its relationship with Taipei. Both sides will benefit from asking whether this strategic ambiguity has run its course.
It works at a diplomatic level. Not so much in real life.
Photographer: I-Hwa Cheng/BloombergMillennials might know it as FWB: Friends With Benefits. Others would describe it as a “situationship.” Whatever the moniker, there is always one partner that ends up in the weaker position, no matter how hard you try to make the power dynamics work. In Washington and Taipei’s relationship, the US calls the shots — and that’s understandable given its superpower status.
Taiwan has been dependent on US defense equipment, deterrence and diplomacy, and has needed the policy of “strategic ambiguity” to maintain the status quo. This is a strategy that has been used for decades to suggest to Beijing that if there was an unprovoked Chinese attack, the US would get involved and help Taipei out. But Washington has never made this an explicit alliance guarantee, because it doesn’t want to antagonize China or see the self-governing island declare independence.