Trump’s Taiwan two-step

South Korea is not a happy country. It was unwilling to help President Trump’s team keep the Strait of Hormuz open. So the petulant president decided it was time to rekindle his love affair with North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jung Un, and punish the South by cutting short joint exercises.  

One wonders if the logical consequence will be the South’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, as it can no longer trust the Trump administration to honor its defense commitments to Seoul.

What happens when China’s President Xi Jingping meets with President Trump next month? Suppose a Trump Taiwan two-step tango takes place and Trump decides there is no reason for the U.S. to go to war or to defend Taiwan, should China invade.

Trump’s argument, before his ill-advised war with Iran, could have been that about two thirds of Americans would not support going to war over Taiwan. But after the bungled Iran “excursion,” opposition to a war with China must surely be greater.

Taiwan’s internal politics reinforces that preference. Taiwan has the resources to create a “Porcupine Defense” that would make any Chinese invasion very costly and thus unlikely.  But it has not done so. Taiwan still depends on the U.S. for its ultimate defense.

Of the 113 seats in the Yuan, Taiwan’s Parliament, 52 are held by the Kuomintang party, which supports some form of reconciliation with the........

© The Hill