The US has cleared a sale of advanced Patriot air defense missiles to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Wednesday.
The department announced the contract late in the evening, allowing Lockheed Martin Corp to sell an unspecified number of Patriots, the American Institute in Taiwan said.
In a statement posted on its Web site on Wednesday, the department said the contract involved “basic missile tooling upgrades.”
The hardware, some of the best in its class, could shoot down Chinese short-range and mid-range missiles, defense analysts say.
BROADER PACKAGE
The sale rounds out a broad US$6.5 billion package of arms approved under former US president George W. Bush in late 2008, said Wendell Minnick, Asia bureau chief with Defense News.
“This is the last piece that Taiwan has been waiting on,” Minnick said.
China on Tuesday urged the US to cancel any arms sales plans to avoid damaging relations with Beijing.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu (姜瑜) said the US should “cancel plans concerning arms sales to Taiwan and stop selling these weapons, to avoid damaging broader China-US relations.”
Meanwhile, Chinese Vice Admiral Yang Yi (楊毅) told the China News Service that though developing good ties between China and the US was important, some things could not be accepted.
“You can’t just be forebearing and conciliatory when it comes to the development of stable and healthy Sino-US relations, and especially when it comes to a question of principles, you should never blindly make concessions,” he said.
‘COUNTERMEASURES’
Some US companies that sell weapons to Taiwan also want to sell aircraft and other products to China, Yang, who is also a researcher at Chinese National Defense University’s Strategic Studies Institute, said, without naming any firms.
“Why don’t we take defensive countermeasures against them? Apart from just protesting to the US government and taking necessary steps, why don’t we put sanctions on these troublemakers?” he said.
The US switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but it remains Taiwan’s biggest ally and is obligated by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to help Taiwan defend itself.
“Taiwan’s defense ministry looks favorably at the US continuing to sell Taiwan weapons for its self-defense,” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General Yu Sy-tue (虞思祖) said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP
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
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
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.
RSS