Panel: Taiwan Facing Increasing Chinese Pressure

Since the 1996 Taiwan Straits crisis, when China tried to intimidate the island by testing missiles in waters near Taiwan and the United States responded by sending two carrier battle groups to the region, Beijing has built up its naval forces of conventionally powered submarines, corvettes, and frigates to influence events in “the first island chain” off its coast—and looks to extend its reach by 2050 to the Mariana Islands with nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers.

China “doesn’t need nuclear-powered submarines to operate around Taiwan,” said Bernard Cole, an expert on China and the Pacific at the National War College.

Said Dean Cheng, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, “The Chinese military is highly focused on Taiwan” on the operational level, and they realize that the island is vulnerable to blockade since it relies on imported food for its growing population, oil for its industries, and free sea lanes to export its technological products. “Taiwan is very dependent on the rest of the world,” he said.

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