Despite a major new report by the US’ Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) making it clear Taiwan’s Air Force is in poor shape, it is by no means certain that Washington will sell Taipei the 66 advanced F-16C/D fighters it wants, sources in Washington said.
A White House source said US President Barack Obama had not made up his mind about the sale.
Weighing heavily against it is a belief that China will object much more strenuously than it did last month when Washington announced a US$6.4 billion arms and technology package.
On top of this, there is a powerful Pentagon group that argues in private that the F-16s would not be enough to significantly tilt the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait back in Taiwan’s favor.
Speaking on condition of confidentiality, a member of the group said there was only “limited support” within the US Defense Department for selling Taiwan the planes and that he very much doubted a sale would go through.
Meanwhile, John Pike, head of the Global Security think tank in Washington, said that the new DIA report was only “belaboring the obvious” and that the Pentagon had known for years about the poor condition of Taiwan’s Air Force.
He said the administration of former US president George W. Bush had not agreed to sell the planes and that there was no reason to believe that Obama would change that policy.
Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, said the unclassified version of the DIA report was “light in substance and content” because the agency did not want to provide anything that might be materially useful to the Chinese.
He said the classified version would address more substantial issues and the very action of producing the report was “extremely useful in driving internal consideration of Taiwan’s ... unaddressed request” for the F-16C/Ds.
The unclassified version, “clearly notes the need for Taiwan to replace aging equipment,” Hammond-Chambers said.
But without knowing what is contained in the classified version, he said, it was not possible to know if the US was more likely to sell the planes to Taiwan.
The report, released in Taipei on Monday, said that although Taiwan has nearly 400 combat aircraft in service, “far fewer of these are operationally capable.”
While the Air Force has deteriorated over the past 15 years, Beijing has been expanding its military on all fronts.
“Taiwan has stood still while China very markedly has not,” Pike said.
Nevertheless, Taiwan’s friends on Capitol Hill are sure to use the report to press the administration and the Pentagon hard for the F-16C/Ds.
Gerrit van der Wees, a senior political adviser with the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, said he believed the report would be used as a “building block” by those in favor of the sale.
He added that he was “optimistic” that the Obama administration would approve the sale of the fighters “within the next few months.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Defense yesterday downplayed the impression of the Air Force given in the report, saying the Air Force was upgrading its fighter jets as well as continuing to seek procurement of the F-16C/Ds.
Air Force Vice Chief of General Staff Major General Han Geng-sheng (韓更生) told a press conference that although the Air Force recognized the military balance of air power across the Taiwan Strait has tipped toward China, it has many programs to upgrade the capabilities of its fighters.
“The Air Force is working to prolong the service life of its F-5 fighters, which have not reached the end of their operational service life as said in the report,” Han said.
He said the upgrading of capabilities of the Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF) has begun and the military had also completed medium and long-term proposals to upgrade its Mirage 2000 and F-16A/B jets.
The service must strengthen management of its fighter jets teams and its personnel before procuring next-generation fighters, Han said.
He said the Air Force would continue to seek procurement of F-16C/Ds as well as the most advanced fighter jets, with short distance take off and landing, advanced air-to-air attack and stealth capabilities.
Ministry spokesman Major General Yu Sy-tue (虞思祖) called on the US to continue to sell Taiwan arms in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act.
During a question-and-answer session with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) at the legislature yesterday, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said Taiwan would not give up its efforts to buy the F-16C/Ds.
“The imbalance of cross-strait military capabilities started to change many years ago. It is very difficult for us to overturn the situation by spending a large amount of money procuring large amounts of military equipment in a short period of time. Spending the money does not live up to the public’s interest, either,” Wu said.
The government needs to purchase “necessary, practical and reasonably priced” equipment, he said.
“The US has not agreed to the sale of F-16C/D fighter jets and submarines, but we are still negotiating ... we will not give up on the F-16C/Ds fighters and submarines because they are important to us,” he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
RSS