US President Barack Obama has informed Congress that he will approve the sale of weapons to Taiwan.
The White House opened discussions about the arms sale last week in a series of secret talks on Capitol Hill. Those talks are continuing this week.
Congressional sources have told the Taipei Times that a public announcement detailing the weapons involved will be made soon — possibly before the end of this month.
The sale could cause a major rift in the China-US relationship, which Obama has been working very hard to develop. At the least, China is expected to cancel military-to-military direct communications. But the rift could widen and have an impact on other aspects of the relationship, including trade and climate control talks currently under way.
Earlier this month, White House sources said that an arms sales announcement was not expected before Obama makes his state of the union speech on national television.
Obama will deliver the speech before both houses of Congress tonight and may include an announcement of the arms package.
The Associated Press (AP) reported on Monday evening that the arms package was likely to include UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles and material related to Taiwan's defense communications network.
Congressional sources, speaking on the strict understanding that they would not be named, told the Taipei Times that, failing a last-minute change of heart, the advanced F-16C/D fighters that Taiwan has requested will not be part of the package.
The sources did not know if Taiwan's request for detailed plans to build diesel-powered submarines would be included, but there was no mention of such plans in the AP report.
Following news of the imminent package, US Congressman David Wu (吳振偉) told President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at his hotel in San Francisco on Monday night that he hoped to see Taiwan obtain F-16C/D fighter jets from Washington.
Ma stopped over in San Francisco on his way to visit allies in Latin America.
Ma said his administration would strive to acquire the weapons, but added that it would depend on Washington's attitude.
AP reported that the sale would satisfy parts of an US$11 billion arms package originally pledged by former US president George W. Bush in 2001.
“That package has been provided in stages because of political and budgetary considerations in Taiwan and the United States,” the AP report said.
Beijing has issued a number of warnings over the last few weeks about the expected arms sale and has made it clear that China's top leadership would be furious if Obama ignores its wishes and proceeds with the sale.
But there was never much doubt that some defensive weapons systems would be sold this year as provided for in the Taiwan Relations Act.
Obama met the Chinese leadership in Beijing in November and signaled that he wanted a much-improved relationship.
“Since then, tensions have spiked, with the United States criticizing Chinese Internet freedom and China worrying over a possible meeting next month between Obama and the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader China accuses of pushing for independence,” AP said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING
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