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US
weapons on June 23, 2004 Taiwan
urged to buy US weapons ARMS
BUDGET: According to the delegation visiting Washington, US officials said that
if Taiwan does not treat its national defense seriously, then the US won't
either US Deputy Secretary of
Defense Paul Wolfowitz has expressed serious concern about Taiwan's ability to
protect itself against possible attacks by China, and urged Taiwan to strengthen
its defenses with the proposed arms purchase, according to a Taiwanese
legislator visiting Washington. According to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Wen-chung,
Wolfowitz said that if Taiwan does not treat its national defense seriously,
then the Americans won't either. Wolfowitz said that if Taiwan did not take action as soon as possible to
strengthen its defenses, China would be encouraged to invest more on military
equipment, Lee told the Taipei Times after he and a multi-party
legislative delegation headed by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng spent a day
in Washington discussing Taiwan's arms procurement budget with top defense and
State Department officials. The 15-member delegation was briefed by 25 US military and civilian
officials during a breakfast meeting on the first day of a three-day visit on
Monday morning, and then went off to separate meetings at the Pentagon and the
State Department. Although Wang is from the pan-blue camp, he still showed support for the
purchase. "The balance of military power on the two sides [of the Taiwan Strait]
is necessary to the area's peace, stability and prosperity," Wang said. The delegation was to attend a congressional meeting yesterday to discuss
the prospects for a measure before the US Congress to enhance military relations
between the US and Taiwan through greater joint activities and mutual visits by
top officials who are currently barred from such visits by long-term US policy. That measure, proposed by Senator Sam Brownback, is expected to come up for
a vote this week. The House recently approved a parallel bill. On Monday, American officials were "vague" about the US'
commitment to help Taiwan fend off an attack from China, Chinese Nationalist
Party (KMT) Legislator Sun Kuo-hua told
the Taipei Times. After the US officials insisted that it would be in Taiwan's best interests
to buy the weapons stipulated in the special budget package -- diesel
submarines, P-3C anti-submarine aircraft and Patriot anti-missile systems -- the
legislators received somewhat unsatisfactory answers to their questions, Sun
said. When asked if the US would come to Taiwan's defense against China if it
were to buy all the weapons, the US side was "vague," Sun said,
"because they couldn't say they wouldn't come to our defense, because if
they said that, Beijing would say, `Okay, let's attack.'" "I think the United States is keeping that deliberately vague,"
he said. Washington has long been pressuring Taiwan to buy the robust weapons
package US President George W. Bush promised in April 2001. Meanwhile, Pentagon officials were still unable to provide details on the
design and cost of the eight diesel submarines included in the package, Sun
said. "We didn't even see a configuration for the submarines ... there's a
lot of uncertainties in the cost estimates," he said. "The United
States Navy doesn't know." Sun indicated that Washington was still looking toward various European
countries to provide the designs. But the US officials "gave no indication where the subs will come
from" and could not provide a price estimate, Sun said. "They could only give a rough estimate. We want them to be more
accurate," he said. "How can we approve the cost in the budget if we don't know?" he
said. US shipbuilding companies, "cannot build diesel submarines,"
because they have not manufactured any for more than 40 years, Sun said.
Arms
aid is a fit tribute to Reagan By
Paul Lin The Pentagon's Annual
Report on the Military Power of the People's Republic of China which was
recently presented to Congress, noted that the possibility has been raised in
some quarters that as a counter-threat against Chinese aggression, Taiwan could
consider targeting densely populated cities or high-value infrastructure
projects such as the Three Gorges Dam. Beijing responded violently to the
suggestion, and according to a source close to the People's Liberation Army (PLA),
quoted by the Straits Times of Singapore, the PLA countered that it not
only had more than adequate resources to protect the Three Gorges Dam, but also
that it had the capacity to target major dams in the US. This shows the same attitude as Deputy Chief of the General Staff Xiong
Guangkai's statement in 1995, in
which he threatened to launch nuclear missiles at Los Angeles if the US came to
the defense of Taiwan. The Global Times, a newspaper under the umbrella
of the People's Daily, has also quoted military sources as saying that if
Taiwan launched a bombing raid against the Three Gorges Dam, the PLA would
respond with sufficient force to "annihilate" Taiwan. Even before this, a so-called military scholar, Xin Qi , had spoken of
"wiping out" Taiwan in a statement made in April 2000, a clear
indication that China's vicious ambition to obliterate Taiwan predates and is
not related to the suggestion of targeting the Three Gorges Dam. The reason the Chinese leadership dares make continual military threats is
that Taiwan is seen as unable to strike back. For this reason, they are willing
to boast that they will pay any price in human lives or economic loss to achieve
their goal of unification. If Taiwan had medium-range missiles that could threaten the Zhongnanhai
compound in Beijing or Yuquanshan, the headquarters of the Central Military
Commission, threatening the lives of the warmongers without endangering innocent
civilians, then they would not be so bold as to make their crazy threats. The Chinese leadership is afraid of the US because it has missiles that
have pinpoint accuracy and are able to penetrate underground bunkers. The Gulf
War and the accidental 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade have
taught former president Jiang Zemin to fear American might. The Chinese leaders
dare not act directly against Taiwan but instead try to disrupt Taiwan-US
relations. China has also supplied weapons to Pakistan, including nuclear weapon
technology, as a means of hemming in India, a country rather similar to China in
some ways and a competitor in terms of economic and population growth. China
even went to war with India in the early 1960s. In January 2002, India successfully tested the Agni Ⅱ medium-range
ballistic missile. It has a range of 2,500km, which could hit targets anywhere
in Pakistan and in large areas of China. India is currently developing the Agni
Ⅲ long-range ballistic missile, which would be able to target the densely
populated cities of eastern and northeastern China. In January 2001, Vasudev
Aatre, the scientific advisor to India's defense minister, pointed out that the
new missile would be tested later that year. It was no secret that this missile
was being developed as a deterrent to China. The chairman of the Central Military Commission, Jiang Zemin , met with
George Fernandes, India's Minister of Defense, who had been accused by the
Chinese of being a "China baiter." Jiang said that China and India
were two of the world's largest developing economies and were also neighbors,
adding that China was willing to live in harmony with India on the basis of the
Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence with both countries respecting and
trusting each other. This is simply an example of the despicable behavior of a
hooligan nation, which bullies the weak and fears the strong. Taiwan's nuclear development program was stopped by the US. Now that
China's military capability is surging ahead, it is the responsibility of the US
to protect Taiwan, not only through the sale of weapons, but also through
support in such research and development. If Taiwan had missiles that could hit
locations where China's leaders live, then the potential for conflict in the
Taiwan Strait would be greatly reduced, and the chance of the US becoming
embroiled in such a conflict would also be reduced. Once Taiwan has acquired these missiles, it could make a statement
rejecting their preemptive use, but retaining the right to use them in
retaliation. This was the attitude China adopted when it began its nuclear
program, After World War II, the military blocs of the East and West avoided
nuclear devastation by creating a "balance of terror." In 1962, then
president John Kennedy successfully resisted the threat of Soviet missile
deployment in Cuba. The current cross-strait crisis also needs such mighty means
and US boldness to achieve a resolution. Such a move would be the greatest
possible memorial to all the late president Ronald Reagan sought to achieve. Paul
Lin is a political commentator based in New York.
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