Should the U.S. Overtly Pledge to Defend Taiwan?

The recent gross overreaction of Xi Jinping, China’s autocratic communist dictator, to Nancy Pelosi’s mere visit to Taiwan has raised fears and hackles in the U.S. foreign policy establishment — with calls to overtly pledge to go to the aid of Taiwan if China attacks the island. 

For decades now, to encourage Taiwan to accept being reunited with the mainland, a rising China, with increasing heft in global affairs, has tried to shut Taiwan off from the external world diplomatically by getting it removed from world forums, while still maintaining economic relations with the island. In the 1980s, as China properly concentrated on freeing up its economy to turbocharge growth, Deng Xiaoping, then-leader of China, ran the more patient policy of reunion with Taiwan — "one country, two systems” — which allowed Taiwan autonomy with the objective of eventually giving the island economic incentives to reunite with the mainland.