Elections in Taiwan are increasingly about which candidate can successfully engage China while protecting Taiwan's status.

While President Obama's decision to deny Taiwan a credible air force adds to Taipei's defense burdens, all may not be lost. Washington and Taipei are hinting at combined work on a new Taiwan defense policy.

Decisions about Taiwan's military requirements should be made on the basis of Taiwan's defensive needs and not U.S. diplomatic relations with Beijing. U.S.-China relations are obviously important, but U.S. resolve in standing by our friends and allies is a critical backstop to ensure that our policy towards Beijing works.

How will Taiwan defend itself in the coming years? What is the outlook for Taiwan’s ties with Japan, Europe and the United States? A group of experts will discuss these and other questions at this special AEI event.

Moreover, most allies haven't a clue how the pivot will manifest itself and what role they should be playing. If a "pivot" means anything, it is at the least keeping security commitments. Now Obama has made one -- helping Taiwan close the "fighter gap."

Given what we have learned about China over the recent past, the answer to its aggressiveness is not more concessions--and certainly not the abandonment of a key partner in Asia's long peace.

Over the past decade, Washington's Taiwan policy has created unnecessary dilemmas for Taiwan's political leadership, when the purpose of U.S. policy should be to discourage unneeded cross Strait tension while binding the democratic island ever closer to Washington.

The signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement by Taiwan and China is a welcome development as it starts Taiwan on a path toward becoming the region's business hub, which could immeasurably improve the nation's security.