Fourteen US senators have written to US President George W. Bush to express their concerns about reports of a possible freeze on all arms sales to Taiwan.
Noting that the US government is legally bound under the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) to provide Taiwan with the “defense articles and services that enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability,” the senators said any freeze on arms sales would violate the spirit of the TRA.
The June 30 letter was signed by Republican James Inhofe and Democrat Tim Johnson, co-chairs of the Senate Taiwan Caucus, and 12 of their colleagues.
The Bush administration is reportedly sitting on congressional notifications related to a number of weapons systems requested by Taiwan, including sea-launched Harpoon missiles, Patriot PAC-3 missile batteries, 30 Apache helicopters and 66 F-16 fighter aircraft.
The senators said they have made attempts to clarify the status of these requests, but to no avail.
“We request a briefing on the status of these sales from all appropriate agencies, and urge the administration to expeditiously execute consideration of these requests,” the senators wrote.
The senators said the military and strategic imperatives for Taiwan are “real and urgent,” adding that according to Pentagon estimates, Beijing’s total defense spending for last year could be as high as US$139 billion —- more than triple the amount publicized by China.
“Taiwan has a right to be ‘secure,’ and that can only be guaranteed by an unambiguous and non-negotiable commitment from the United States to provide Taiwan with weapons systems consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act,” they said.
The Washington-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) — an overseas Taiwanese group — urged the Bush administration on Monday to process the arms sales to Taiwan as soon as possible.
FAPA president Bob Yang (楊英育) said the US should help Taiwan preserve its democracy and freedom, and delaying arms sales would undermine Taiwan’s ability to protect its sovereignty and reduce its bargaining chips in negotiating with China.
Meanwhile, the latest edition of Defense News reports that any attempts by Taipei to get arms sales back up and running could fall afoul of Beijing’s increasingly deft tactics and its growing clout in Washington.
China has become an expert at using excuses to slow sales to Taiwan, the magazine quoted retired US Admiral Dennis Blair, a former commander of the US Pacific Command, as saying.
“Bush is [going] to China for the Olympics, there is an APEC summit here, there is a conference there, and pretty soon they’ll have the whole calendar blocked out,” the magazine cited Blair as saying.
“It’s ‘never a good time’ to approve these arms sales,” he said.
“China’s increasingly skillful charm-offensive tactics has put Taiwan in a difficult position in conducting diplomacy in Washington,” Alexander Huang (黃介正), an associate of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in the weekly.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
RSS