Welcome to the President's Inbox, a CFR podcast about the foreign policy challenges facing the United States.

I'm Jim Lindsay, Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

This week's topic is, the future of U.S.-Taiwan relations.

With me to discuss the nature and extent of U.S. support for Taiwan, in light of the

resurgence of great power competition with China, are Susan Gordon and Admiral Mike

Mullen.

Sue served as Principal Deputy Secretary of National Intelligence

from 2017 to 2019. Before that, she served as a deputy director of the National Geospatial

Intelligence Agency. She served for four decades as a career intelligence officer in the

Central Intelligence Agency and at

NGA. Admiral Mullen served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2007 to 2011. Before that,

he was the Navy's 28th Chief of Naval Operations, the most senior position in the United States Navy. He served in the Navy

for more than four decades. Sue and Mike are co-chairs of the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force

titled US-Taiwan Relations in a New Era responding to a more assertive China, which was released

today. You can download a copy of the

report at cfr.org. Sue and Mike, thank you for joining me. Great to be here. Nice to be with you, Jim.

Sue, if I can, I'll begin with you. For decades, Washington has essentially finessed the question of Taiwan's status in its relations with Beijing.

China claims Taiwan as part of its sovereign territory, but so far has not sought to forcibly reclaim the island.

The United States in return does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign country.

We have no treaty obligation to defend that. But the United States also says that any reunification

effort should be done peacefully in with Taiwan's consent. Is this strategy of essentially finessing Taiwan's status, sometimes called

strategic ambiguity, sustainable in the face of rising Chinese power? Jim, I think it's a great

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