Bolstering Taiwan’s Defense: The Biden Administration’s Tri-Pronged Strategy

• The U.S. focuses on enhancing Taiwan’s intelligence capabilities and strengthening intelligence sharing.
• Congress extends support to Taiwan’s defense through technology transfer and a $10 billion military modernization plan, focusing on advanced C4ISR capabilities. 
• The Biden Administration explores strengthened diplomatic ties with Taiwan and NATO to share resources and responsibility, fortifying the collective effort to deter China from unifying the Island through force.

The U.S. has established strategic priorities for its relationship with Taiwan, with the intent of countering China’s influence in the region. This approach employs a combination of intelligence, military, and diplomatic instruments to achieve its goals.

Initially, the U.S. aims to bolster Taiwan’s intelligence capabilities to strengthen its position and counter China. The first step taken by President Biden was to augment the funding and resources allocated to U.S. Intelligence Agencies via the National Defense Authorization Act. During a recent meeting in the White House Situation Room, the President instructed National Security Council (NSC) lead Jake Sullivan to assign the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) with the task of intensifying and synchronizing intelligence operations across all U.S. Intelligence Agencies.

This focus targets China’s actions in the U.S. and in the Asia Pacific region. Following an evaluation of the CIA’s priorities, Director William Burns announced the formation of a China Mission Center within the spy agency.

President Biden has also assigned distinct intelligence tasks to various agencies: the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will handle Human Intelligence, the National Security Agency (NSA) will be in charge of Signal Intelligence, the Office of Naval Intelligence will focus on Maritime Intelligence, the National Geospatial Agency (NGA) will handle Imagery & Geo-Spatial Information, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) will manage counterintelligence & counterterrorism, and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) will oversee Defense intelligence. Furthermore, President Biden is planning to enhance intelligence sharing between the U.S. and Taiwan to support counter-intelligence operations, thereby mitigating China’s influence and attaining U.S. strategic objectives.

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Secondly, the U.S. aims to guarantee and improve Taiwan’s security and defense capabilities in preparation for potential conflicts across the straits. The U.S. Congress, through the House and Senate Armed Services Committee, has increased its commitment under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act by facilitating technology transfer to Taiwan through Arms Sales and Security Cooperation.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) now outlines plans worth $10 billion for the modernization of Taiwan’s military, specifically focusing on enhancing C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, & Reconnaissance) capabilities. Furthermore, the Pentagon Joint Chiefs of Staff have directed the Pentagon Deputy Joint Chief of Staff to formulate the budget for military deployment plans, should China use force to unify the Island, ensuring a comprehensive engagement plan with numerous options to counteract China.

Lastly, the U.S. aims to develop diplomatic relations with Taiwan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to enhance cooperation and deter China. President Biden has liaised with NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) to assess options for information sharing, establishing secure communication links, and sharing advanced technology between Taiwan and the NATO Communication Information System Group (NCISG) to boost C4ISR capabilities. The President has also ordered classified briefings requesting Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin to explore ways for Taiwan to utilize NATO capabilities without membership, allowing the U.S. to share responsibility and resources to combat Chinese influence in the region.

Moving forward, it can be anticipated that the Biden administration will continue to diversify and upgrade its toolkit to protect Taiwan. The effectiveness of these measures remains to be seen.