In this study, we attempt to understand American military posture in East Asia within the context of a US-Japan-China-South Korea-Taiwan pyramid, where the US plays the role of benign leader at the apex. With the demise of the Soviet Union, China has become the only power to challenge not only regionally bust also globally. Equipped with a realist predisposition, the Bush administration appears apt to keep a watchful eye on the emerging competitor China, who has alarmed both the US and her allay Japan during the 1995-96 missile crises against Taiwan. With this strategic understanding in mind, we will seek to allure to some military arrangements contemplated by the US. Efforts will be made to examine five official documents already made to the public since President George W. Bush’s inauguration, including his own the National Security Strategy of the United States of America, and the Department of Defense’s Quadrennial Defense Review Report, Nuclear Posture Review, Annual Report to the President and the Congress, and Annual Report on the Military Power of the Peoples’ Republic of China. Before our conclusions, we recapitulate the US policy toward Taiwan within our broad framework.
