A Washington conference has been told there is a general consensus on Capitol Hill in support of Taiwan that could extend to selling it F-16 fighter planes, while a leading Republican congresswoman called on US President Barack Obama to move quickly on the sale.
The conservative Heritage Foundation hosted the conference to discuss “The Taiwan Relations Act’s Enduring Legacy on Capitol Hill.”
Congressman Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, said: “The US should not dictate any particular outcome of Taiwan’s relationship with the mainland. But we must see that the relationship develops peacefully and with the consent of the people in Taiwan. I am committed to ensuring that Taiwan has the military wherewithal to negotiate from a position of strength.”
Standing in for Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Wilson said that Taiwan’s interest in China did not extend to unification.
MISSILES
He added that while the people of Taiwan may want to maintain the status quo forever, China does not and that is why it has more than 1,000 missiles aimed at Taiwan.
Wilson said that any well-meaning reconciliation would require dismantling the missile threat to Taiwan and there was no sign that China was prepared to do that.
He said: “What about the rest of the Chinese military build-up? They tell us it’s not aimed at us. Who is it aimed at? The Taiwanese know. That is why they want F-16s and that is why we should provide F-16s. It would be a deterrence to military adventurism and I believe it would promote peace through strength.”
Saying that a recent resolution supporting the 30-year-old Taiwan Relations Act passed the Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support, Wilson said there was “broad and enthusiastic consensus” on Capitol Hill in favor of Taiwan.
He said that he was not aware of any direct discussions to date with the Obama administration on the sale of F-16s to Taiwan.
PUSH FROM CONGRESS
Asked if there was currently a push in Congress to sell F-16s to Taiwan, Wilson said: “It is my view that the vote we had on March 24, reaffirming our support for Taiwan, including a strong national defense for Taiwan, showed that members of Congress want that.”
Ros-Lehtinen was unable to attend as principal speaker at the conference because of last-minute scheduling of Foreign Affairs Committee business, but Dennis Halpin, a senior member of her staff and an expert on Taiwan, read long quotes from the speech.
Ros-Lehtinen was to say in her speech: “Beijing has given no indication that it has altered its ultimate objective of forcibly dominating Taiwan. Beijing has undertaken no confidence building measures to accompany the recent thaw. It has continued unabated in its buildup of missiles.”
CROSS-STRAIT THAW
“All this implies that the recent cross-strait thaw may be no more than an early rise in temperatures to be followed by an even bleaker winter of discontent. Beijing also continues its expansion in submarines and other naval vessels seeking to turn the Western Pacific into a Chinese lake,” she added.
“The March incident involving the US surveillance ship, the [USS] Impeccable, is only the latest evidence of Beijing’s attempt to dominate the international waters in the general vicinity of Taiwan. I wish that Taiwan already had those diesel submarines first promised by the Bush Administration in 2001,” the speech said.
VITAL
“I have always been a strong advocate legislatively in the Congress of making those weapons systems vital to the defense of Taiwan readily available, as called for in the Taiwan Relations Act. I also advocate the provision of a new generation of F-16 aircraft for the defense of Taiwan and hope that the Obama administration will act expeditiously on this matter,”she said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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