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Doubts raised over
Biden-China report
DISINFORMATION EFFORT? Rick Fisher said Beijing
wants to convince people that it is slowly forcing the US to surrender its
military and political interests in Taiwan
By William Lowther / Staff Reporter in Washington
Doubts were being cast on reports this week that US Vice President Joe Biden
would assure Beijing during his visit next month that the US would not sell
F-16C/D aircraft to Taiwan.
While refusing to comment directly on the reports, a source close to US
President Barack Obama¡¦s administration said that just a few days ago the US
Department of State had confirmed that ¡§no decision¡¨ had been made on whether to
sell the aircraft to Taiwan.
¡§That has not changed,¡¨ the source said.
Pressed for what that meant for Biden¡¦s trip, he said: ¡§No decision has been
made. Until a decision is made, there is no way that Biden or anyone else can
tell the Chinese about it.¡¨
Officials spoke on the condition that they not be named because of the delicate
diplomatic situation.
Biden will visit Beijing in the middle of next month and is certain to be
closely questioned and warned about US arms sales to Taiwan.
A ¡§senior US official¡¨ reportedly told the Chinese-language news agency DW News
that Biden would tell Beijing that the US would agree to update Taiwan¡¦s aging
144 F-16A/B aircraft and that a formal announcement would be made in September.
There has been widespread speculation over the past month that the upgrade will
go ahead, but that the sale of the much more advanced F-16C/Ds will not be
approved.
However, that speculation has not been confirmed by anyone in a position to
know.
There can be little doubt that a sale of the F-16C/Ds would result in a strong
protest from Beijing and disruption of US-China relations. Most likely, Beijing
would break off the military-to-military contacts so desired by Washington.
While China would also protest upgrading Taiwan¡¦s older F-16A/B aircraft, it
would be less concerned and would be less likely to disrupt relations with
Washington.
US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairman of the House of Representatives
Committee on Foreign Affairs and a strong supporter of selling the more advanced
F-16C/Ds to Taiwan, was not available for comment.
However, ¡§it would be deeply disappointing were the administration to inform
Beijing about this decision before consulting with and informing the US
Congress,¡¨ a senior congressional aide said.
Another senior aide confirmed that the administration had not told Congress that
a decision on the F-16 sale had been made and that it was ¡§impossible to
believe¡¨ that Biden would share that information with China before he would
share it with Capitol Hill.
Rick Fisher, a senior fellow in Asian military affairs with the Washington-based
International Assessment and Strategy Center, told the Taipei Times that the DW
News report could be an example of Chinese disinformation.
¡§DW News appears to be a US company, but it resembles other large Chinese
Internet news portals like Sina.com, albeit with a less pronounced nationalist
bent,¡¨ Fisher said.
¡§The lack of any real descriptor of its ¡¥senior¡¦ US source raises the
possibility that knowledgeable Chinese government officials, perhaps even
Propaganda Department officials, are the real origin of the story,¡¨ he said.
Fisher said that Beijing wants to convince Chinese and Taiwanese audiences that
it is slowly forcing the US to surrender its military and political interests on
Taiwan and that Taiwanese must eventually surrender to China.
Nevertheless, he said there was little in the Obama administration¡¦s statements
or ¡§body language¡¨ to indicate it was willing to proceed with the sale of new
F-16s in the foreseeable future.
¡§Washington gains nothing by delaying the sale of new F-16s to Taiwan. Selling
new F-16s with modern subsystems will more quickly prepare the Taiwan Air Force
for what it really needs, a version of the fifth-generation F-35. Depending upon
the equipment package, upgrading Taiwan¡¦s early model F-16s can sustain a low
level of parity, but that will not keep pace with a Chinese threat that grows
every day,¡¨ Fisher said.
¡§For Washington, no amount of mil-to-mil contact with the PLA [People¡¦s
Liberation Army] is worth allowing deterrence on the Taiwan Strait to decline to
the point of inviting a catastrophic war,¡¨ Fisher said.
¡§Regardless of the DW News story¡¦s veracity, the Obama administration risks
projecting that it values the former more than preventing the later,¡¨ he said.
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