¡@
Arms sales threatened by US-PRC military
dialogue
SALES TO BE SHELVED?: Washington's Taiwanese community is concerned that the
US may bow to pressure from Beijing and sacrifice F-16 sales to Taiwan
By William Lowther
Staff Reporter in WASHINGTON
Saturday, Sep 11, 2010, Page 1
In a move that could affect US arms sales to Taiwan, the
Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that China had ¡§clearly signaled their interest
in resuming military-to-military discussions and we are right now exploring how
best to do that.¡¨
The US has been more than anxious to resume military-to-military contacts since
they were broken off by China in February as a direct result of Washington
approving a new arms sales package to Taiwan.
US Department of Defense Press Secretary Geoff Morrell strongly indicated that
the contacts would restart before the end of this year, that US Secretary of
Defense Robert Gates would visit Beijing in the next three months and that
Chinese President Hu Jintao (JÀAÀÜ) would visit Washington in January.
In view of these developments, it seems unlikely that a decision will be made
anytime soon on Taipei¡¦s request to buy 66 advanced F-16 fighter planes ¡X
desperately needed to boost Taiwan¡¦s aging Air Force.
According to Washington-based China experts, if a decision were made to sell the
fighter aircraft, Beijing would almost certainly again cancel
military-to-military contacts and Hu¡¦s state visit would also be abandoned.
Nor could a sale of the fighters be approved for quite some time after Hu¡¦s
visit, experts say, for fear that such a decision would be interpreted as an
insult to the Chinese president.
However, a report released earlier this year by the US-Taiwan Business Council
said: ¡§With the last F-16s under contract slated to be delivered by the end of
2013, and given the 36-month manufacturing lead time, the production could be
forced to close before a decision is made. The window for Taiwan to purchase
new-built F-16s is closing rapidly.¡¨
Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Laurie Quincy said at the time that in order for the
F-16 production line to be kept open beyond 2013, the company would need ¡§some
intent by the US government¡¨ to sell the fighters to Taiwan by this December.
Council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers has said that if the US doesn¡¦t
decide whether to sell F-16s to Taiwan by early next year ¡§that decision will be
made for them as a function of the fact the F-16 production line will start to
wind down.¡¨
This has led to concern within Washington¡¦s Taiwanese community that the
administration of US President Barack Obama may bow to Chinese pressure and
sacrifice the F-16 sales in order to keep US-China military-to-military contacts
alive and save Hu¡¦s visit.
Coincidentally, Richard Bush, a former director of the American Institute in
Taiwan, has just published a paper that concludes Taiwan needs to strengthen its
military deterrence and that the US should continue to sell arms to Taiwan to
help build that deterrence.
¡§Increasing Taiwan¡¦s sense of vulnerability will not win the hearts and minds of
Taiwan¡¦s people,¡¨ Bush wrote. ¡§It betrays a lack of confidence in the good sense
of Taiwan¡¦s voters. China only hurts its cause by acting in ways that lead
Taiwanese citizens to vote on the basis of their fears rather than their hopes.¡¨
The decision to reopen US-China military contacts comes after three days of
high-level talks in Beijing involving US National Economic Council Director
Lawrence Summers and US Deputy National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon. At one
point, they met directly with Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao (·Å®aÄ_).
¡§What we are looking for is a resumption of productive, transparent,
military-to-military engagement, so that we can both gain a better understanding
of what our ambitions are, what our intentions are, when it comes to our
military budgets, how we operate, where we operate and so forth,¡¨ Morrell said.
¡§These kinds of exchanges are just very helpful in avoiding misunderstandings,
miscalculations and so forth.¡¨
¡@
|