The security situation across the Taiwan Strait: challenges and opportunities

This paper reviews the security challenges from several perspectives, the first and perhaps most important being the geo‐strategic reality that Taiwan will always be only 90‐odd miles from mainland China. This irreversible fact means that Taiwan will always be in the shadow of growing mainland power. The paper then briefly comments on how PLA modernization, largely focused on the ‘Taiwan issue’ does pose real challenges. The paper addresses some of the issues surrounding how the ROC is addressing its defense, and contrast, unfavorably, the lack of ROC military focus compared to what is going on in the mainland. The paper also makes an attempt to assess opportunities from a security perspective. The key question is opportunities for what?