During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s early June visit to North Korea, Kim Jong Un confirmed his support for Beijing’s “One China” principle, which has long been used to claim sovereignty over Taiwan as an inalienable part of China. Following North Korea’s support for Russia in its war in Ukraine, including an estimated 15,000 troops, questions have been raised about whether Pyongyang could play a role in a potential military confrontation between China and Taiwan.
If such a crisis erupted over Taiwan tomorrow, the United States would likely find itself stretched thin, given that its industrial capacity has been seriously weakened by decades of offshoring. To be sure, a prolonged conflict in the Asia-Pacific is a scenario that U.S. policymakers have anticipated and prepared for over the years. However, even the most carefully planned strategic scenarios cannot make up for gaps in Washington’s ability to manufacture the ships, missiles and other weapons components needed to support a long-term response.
Such weaknesses in the U.S. defense industrial base no longer represent a mere economic issue; they now pose an immediate strategic vulnerability. On June 17, U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act, enabling the Department of Defense to establish voluntary agreements with private providers to break bottlenecks and accelerate supply chains.
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