US Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, the Nevada democrat who co-chairs the Taiwan caucus, told a Washington conference on Tuesday that she was preparing to write a letter to US President Barack Obama asking him to sell Taiwan the F-16 fighter aircraft it has requested.
A similar letter to former US president George W Bush about a year ago, spurred the White House to announce the last major arms deal with Taipei.
Reluctant to anger China — Obama plans to visit Beijing in November — the president seems to have shelved Taiwan’s request for 66 F-16s to boost its fleet of aging fighters.
There has been speculation that Obama will make no decisions about the planes until after his November visit, but a campaign led by Representative Berkley, who is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, could force his hand.
She said that she was “going to make sure” that the Obama administration acted on the issue.
“I think it is very important,” she said.
She said that after the Taiwan caucus sent a letter about a year ago to Bush urging him to release arms “we had basically promised to Taiwan,” a number were released before Bush left office, but not the F-16s.
“Militarily, they will help to keep peace in the Strait,” Berkley said.
Berkley seemed confident that she would be able to gather significant bipartisan support and that the letter would be co-signed not just by members of the Taiwan caucus but also by other members of the House.
The letter would be sent in the near future, the Congresswoman added, if the Obama administration does not act of its own accord.
Berkley was speaking at a Center for National Policy conference called to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
US
Turning to the life sentences passed on former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁)and his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), Berkley said that the US Congress had a role to play in making sure that the court proceedings “were fair and open and that decisions were reached appropriately and were not politically motivated.”
She refused to make further comments on the case until after the full appeal is completed — which could take a year or more — because “it just wouldn’t be appropriate.”
But several senior members of Congress speaking off the record over the last few days have expressed their “shock” at the severity of the sentences.
There is concern on Capitol Hill that there was political interference in the trial and that the sentences were too harsh.
But any outrage or condemnation would have to wait until after the appeal has run its course before being expressed publicly, they said.
Regarding the TRA, Richard Bush, a Brookings Institution scholar and one of the most respected Taiwan experts in Washington, said that the security section of the Act was not well understood.
Most people, he said, believed that the Act “required” the US to sell arms to Taiwan and come to Taiwan’s defense in the case of a crisis.
But that interpretation, he said, “exaggerated” the real meaning of the Act.
In practice, he said the White House would decide on selling weapons and coming to the nation’s defense while only “consulting” Congress.
Most of the TRA language, he said, was a statement of policy rather than of law.
“The only thing that the TRA requires a US administration to do is to report to the Congress in a crisis, just report,” he said.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
RSS