The Pentagon is pressing Japan and Australia to make clear what role they would play if the US goes to war with China over Taiwan, the Financial Times reported over the weekend.
The report said that the Pentagon’s policy chief, Elbridge Colby, has been pressing the issue in recent meetings with Japanese and Australian officials, an effort that has frustrated officials in Tokyo and Canberra.
Appearing to confirm the report, Colby said in a post on X that the Pentagon is implementing President Trump’s “America First” foreign policy by “urging allies to step up their defense spending and other efforts related to our collective defense” in both Europe and Asia. “Of course, some among our allies might not welcome frank conversations,” he said.
Colby is a China hawk and a major proponent of the US preparing for war over Taiwan despite the risk of nuclear war. The FT report said that his meetings with Australian and Japanese officials were Colby’s latest effort to convince allies in the region to “raise deterrence” and prepare for a potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
Sources told the paper that the US has been asking allies to raise military spending, but the request for commitments related to a potential war with China was a new demand. The US is for clarity on the issue despite maintaining a policy of strategic ambiguity over the question of whether or not the US would intervene if China attacked Taiwan.
“Concrete operational planning and exercises that have direct application to a Taiwan contingency are moving forward with Japan and Australia,” a source told FT. “But this request caught Tokyo and Canberra by surprise because the US itself does not give a blank cheque guarantee to Taiwan.”
The ambiguity around the US commitment to Taiwan has eroded in recent years as President Biden repeatedly declared that he would defend Taiwan. While President Trump has declined to make the commitment, his Pentagon chief has made clear that the US is preparing for a direct fight with China.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on May 31 that if “deterrence fails” and China attacks Taiwan, “and if called upon by my Commander in Chief, we are prepared to do what the Department of Defense does best – fight and win — decisively.”
