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US weapons sales will
just be mere symbolism
By Liu Shih-chung ¼B¥@©¾
Late last month, Wang Yi (¤ý¼Ý), director of China¡¦s Taiwan Affairs Office, warned
the US that selling arms to Taiwan would damage US-China relations. However, US
President Barack Obama¡¦s administration reiterated that US policy on arms sales
to Taiwan would not change.
With the US presidential elections coming up, Obama is experiencing less support
back home, just like President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E) in Taiwan, which has opened
him up to attacks from opponents and interest groups. For example, 181 members
of the US Congress signed a protest and blocked the appointment of William Burns
as US undersecretary of state for political affairs to demand that US Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton make an announcement on US arms sales to Taiwan
by Oct. 1, especially the sale of F-16C/D aircraft.
The US, China and Taiwan each have their own plans when it comes to the F-16C/D
issue. After having blocked the sale of F-16C/Ds to Taiwan in 2009, we can
expect Beijing to continue pressuring Washington.
Washington, however, plans to let US Vice President Joe Biden, who will visit
Beijing this month, talk Chinese leaders into accepting upgrades of existing
F-16A/B aircraft as an alternative to the sale of F-16C/Ds. This move is against
Washington¡¦s ¡§six assurances¡¨ to Taiwan, which state that the US will not
discuss arms sales to Taiwan with China before their sale, and it shows the
Obama administration is worried that US-China military exchanges will break down
again, while at the same time it must pay attention to voters at home.
In Taiwan, election worries have made the Ma administration use the Mainland
Affairs Council and the Ministry of National Defense as the ¡§bad guys¡¨ pushing
for the sale of F-16C/D jets and even diesel-electric submarines, making it seem
as if the government is raising its hopes, when people with inside knowledge
know full well that Ma only wants to upgrade our F-16A/B aircraft as a way of
garnering more support in the election.
In the end, all Taiwan is likely to get are these upgrades. That would be a huge
blow to both Taiwan-US relations and to the cross-strait military balance. The
biggest difference between upgrading the existing F-16A/Bs and buying new
F-16C/Ds is that a mere upgrade will mean that the number of fighters will
remain the same, which will mean that Taiwan¡¦s air defense capabilities will not
increase in quantity.
Furthermore, even if Ma has openly urged the US to sell Taiwan F-16C/Ds 21 times
over the past three years, his actions have belied his statements, which made
Washington suspicious about his intentions to strengthen Taiwan¡¦s defense
capabilities.
Examples of such actions include a substantial lack of funds allocated to the
defense budget, sitting around waiting for the US to agree before submitting
letters of intent for military procurement, failing to deliver on his campaign
promise that national defense spending would be 3 percent of GDP, as well as the
recent remarks from a retired general who said that we should not differentiate
between the Republic of China Army and the People¡¦s Liberation Army because ¡§we
are all China¡¦s army.¡¨
On July 25, the Washington Times quoted an unnamed Obama official who said
Taiwan has not lobbied very strongly for the sale of F-16C/D aircraft. The
report also said the recent flight by a Chinese bomber that crossed the Taiwan
Strait median line shows that Ma¡¦s conciliation policy has been a failure.
Whatever weapons Washington sells Taipei will be merely symbolic, while Taiwan
has lost a long-term view of national security because our shortsighted
politicians only care about these things at election time.
Liu Shih-chung is a research fellow at the Taipei-based Taiwan Brain Trust.
Translated by Drew Cameron
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