(Adds comments by White House national security adviser,
background)
By Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) - While China probably is not
ready to invade Taiwan for now, the island needs to "fortify
itself" against a future attack or any bid to isolate it through
nonmilitary means, such as an embargo, the White House national
security adviser said on Friday.
"I think Taiwan needs to start looking at some asymmetric
and anti-access area denial strategies," Robert O'Brien told an
online Aspen Institute forum. "And really fortify itself in a
manner that would deter the Chinese from any sort of amphibious
invasion or even a gray zone operation against them."
He described a gray zone operation as one that would involve
isolating Taiwan by economic measures or some kind of embargo.
Rising tensions over Taiwan have led some analysts to
speculate China might be tempted to take advantage of a possibly
chaotic result of the hotly contested U.S. election to make good
on a long-standing vow to reunite the island with the mainland,
by force if necessary.
Asked if he was concerned that China could launch an
amphibious invasion of Taiwan or employ nonmilitary means to
subdue the island, O'Brien said he did not think "the Chinese
probably at this point want or likely are prepared for an
amphibious landing."
"It would be a hard operation for the Chinese to do" and
Beijing would have to consider how the United States would
respond, he said. "If we got involved, that can make that a very
dangerous effort for the Chinese to engage in."
China could use its massive missile force to "annihilate"
Taiwan, "but I don't know what they would gain from that," he
said.
The "entire free world" and most of the Asia-Pacific region
would be "repelled" if China employed an embargo or other "gray
zone" methods to isolate Taiwan and the country would end up
isolating itself internationally, he said.
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China says U.S. undermines Taiwan Strait's stability
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