Despite Beijing’s ongoing efforts to project an image of strength in challenging U.S. hegemony, increasing evidence suggests that China is more fragile than it seems. Nevertheless, it’s important for policy-makers in Washington to operate as if we are behind the ball and move to shore up our Pacific alliances. This week the U.S. took a small but significant step in that direction.

U.S. and Taiwanese officials gathered Thursday morning to sign a new trade deal, the first under the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative for 21st Century Trade. Taiwanese officials hailed it as the most comprehensive deal between the two countries since 1979. Predictably, Chinese officials reacted harshly to the new agreement: 

The Chinese foreign ministry accused Washington of violating agreements on the status of Taiwan, which split with the mainland in 1949 after a civil war. The United States has no official relations with Taiwan but has extensive informal ties and multibillion-dollar annual trade.

“The United States should stop any form of official exchanges with Taiwan, refrain from negotiating agreements with Taiwan that have sovereign connotations or official nature and refrain from sending wrong signals to the ‘Taiwan independence’ secessionist forces,” said a ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning.

That the U.S. is moving forward with the deal, despite provocative actions taken by the Chinese government over the last year, is a sign that our commitment to Taiwan remains unwavering. As Senator Rick Scott wrote for NR last August: 

Standing with Taiwan and employing a truly effective strategy of “integrated deterrence” means delivering strength in both arms and trade. It is essential to the national security of the United States, and the preservation of freedom and democracy in Asia, that we seize the opportunity before us to deter and combat communist China’s aggression.

While not nearly enough, this deal is a good start.