This section examines regional issues that could influence relations between the U.S., China, and Taiwan. The issues include the deployment of Tactical Nuclear Weapons (TNW) to the Korean Peninsula, as well as the deployment of the THAAD system to the region. China strongly opposes both deployments. For China, the THAAD deployment in particular could be expanded to include the first island chain of Japan, Taiwan, and Philippines, which would undermine Chinese territorial and sovereignty claims over Taiwan. Other regional issues include the ongoing territorial dispute between China and Japan over the East China Sea, as well as the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. In these two cases, our primary focus is how these disputes influence relations between the China and Taiwan, and China, Taiwan, and the U.S. The pages covering these issues are forthcoming.
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