Why Taiwan? ROC Leaders Explain Taiwan’s Strategic Value

Where does Taiwan fit in East Asia? Since late 2011, President Barack Obama and his cabinet have promised a “pivot” or “rebalancing” to reassert American influence in the region.1 Obama seeks to implement a variety of measures in response to China’s increasing power and to perceptions that wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have distracted the United States. The pivot includes a redeployment of military assets, greater diplomatic engagement, and measures to boost economic integration. The United States has increased its military cooperation (and sometimes its military presence) in an arc stretching from Japan to Australia to India. Washington has enhanced the level of diplomatic representation at regional and bilateral meetings. Finally, gradual progress toward the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a regional trading group advocated by the United States, highlights the economic side of the pivot. Leaders in most of the countries around China have encouraged the American initiative.