China expert emphasizes need for military exchanges between Taiwan, U.S.

Taipei, April 13 (CNA) China expert Miles Yu (余茂春) said at a forum in Taipei on Saturday that Taiwan's military and its American counterpart could share best practices in combating China's cognitive warfare and other areas as part of their military cooperation.

The U.S. and Taiwan should get a better understanding of each other's "strengths and weaknesses" and try to find ways to "overcome [their] shortcomings," Yu said of possible military cooperation between the two sides in response to Beijing's threats against Taiwan.

Yu, who served as the China policy adviser to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump, made the comments in a pre-recorded video shown at the forum, which also featured speakers such as Taiwan's Vice President-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and former U.S. military official Tony Hu.

The forum held in commemoration of the 45th anniversary of the U.S.' Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) was organized by the Formosa Republican Association, a conservative Taiwan-based civil society group dedicated to promoting Taiwan's ties with the U.S.

Yu is a Chinese-born American professor who currently serves as a senior fellow and director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute, an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Yu said the U.S. and Taiwanese militaries can share their best practices, especially in the aspects of "psychological warfare and cognitive warfare," to achieve better teamwork.

For example, Yu said, for many decades, the U.S. had not developed its military theory and command with the assumption that China could be its potential target.

Neither had the U.S. military had chances to engage in confrontations with their Chinese counterpart, he added.

On the other hand, Taiwan's military understands "the Chinese Communist Party's strategic culture and tactical operations," he said, noting that Taiwan was not short of experts familiar with these topics.

He also advocated for U.S. arms sales to Taiwan aimed at enhancing the latter's asymmetric warfare capability and targeting China's vulnerabilities, without elaborating.

Speaking of the TRA, which serves as a foundation for Washington's policy towards Taipei in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, Yu said it was "landmark" legislation but could be modified to strengthen the U.S. commitment to Taiwan.

He said the legislation should expand the U.S. commitment to Taiwan proper and the Penghu archipelago to also include the country's other outlying islands, such as Kinmen and Matsu.

He was referring to the text of the TRA which defines the term Taiwan as including only "the islands of Taiwan and the Pescadores" as well as the people, corporations and other entities on those islands.

The TRA, promulgated in 1979 in the wake of the U.S. switching diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China (Taiwan's official name) to the People's Republic of China, mandates that Washington supply defense weapons to Taiwan.

According to the TRA, it remains U.S. policy to "maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan."