TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — If Beijing put in place a maritime blockade of Taiwan, Washington and its allies have the capability to break through it, Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, told Nikkei.
China has enough naval ships and the ability to pull off a blockade around Taiwan, Paparo told Nikkei and other media traveling with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin last week in Hawaii. “The question that follows is ‘Do the allies have the capability to break that blockade?’ And the answer to that is a resounding yes,” said Paparo.
Paparo added that the U.S. could break a Chinese blockade on its own, due to American firepower and “superiority in key domains,” which could be in reference to nuclear submarines and other undersea assets, Nikkei said.
Meanwhile, Nikkei cited an unnamed U.S. defense official as saying Beijing could turn to other methods to cut off maritime access to Taiwan, similar to the live-fire drills announced after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei. The Chinese exercises forced civilian ships and aircraft to alter their routes, which had a significant impact on normal operations, the official said.
“You could essentially blockade Taiwan’s access, through the repeated imposition of these kinds of closure areas, legally, safely, and in a way that would be extraordinarily difficult, either for Taiwan or the U.S., to challenge and to counter,” Nikkei cited the defense official as saying.
China could then deny it was trying to impose a blockade, and if the West was unable to verify one was in place, Washington would be unable to carry out an operation to break it, per the report.
The problem for Beijing is that only blockading Taiwan would unlikely make Taiwanese choose to unify with China.
The American defense official said that if a blockade failed, China could attempt to seize smaller islands under Taiwan’s control like Kinmen, Matsu, or Taiping Island to send a message that Beijing is capable of invasion.
