US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley has confirmed that despite major objections from China, US President Barack Obama is not considering ending arms sales to Taiwan.
The comment was made on Tuesday afternoon at the regular State Department briefing when Crowley was questioned about the resumption of US-China military-to-military talks.
Beijing stopped such contacts in January as a protest after Obama announced the sale of more than US$6 billion in arms to Taipei.
Contacts have been restarted this week following talks between US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and his Chinese counterpart, Minister of National Defense Liang Guanglie (梁光烈), in Hanoi.
However, China has made it clear to Washington that it remains strongly opposed to the sale of weapons and especially to the sale of 66 advanced F-16C/D fighters being requested by Taipei.
Asked whether Washington took Beijing’s anger over arms sales to Taiwan more seriously than in the past and whether consideration was being given to ending the arms sales, Crowley said: “Consideration of these issues and our provision of defense articles to Taiwan is consistent with our law, the Taiwan Relations Act, and we will continue to follow our law.”
Pressed by another reporter on whether consideration was being given to halting arms sales, Crowley again replied: “No,” this time more emphatically.
Crowley appeared to be prepared for the question with his firm reaffirmation of policy approved by the highest levels.
Crowley’s remarks came as Daniel Blumenthal, a specialist on Asia, posted an article on Foreign Policy’s Web site saying that under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Taiwan’s relations with the US had become “almost non-existent.”
Blumenthal, a member of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, wrote that Washington was taking its commitment to helping Taiwan defend itself “rather lightly.”
Over the past decade, he wrote, Washington’s Taiwan policy created unnecessary dilemmas for Taiwan’s political leadership.
“If a president of Taiwan reconciles with China, Washington’s impulse is to neglect relations, confident that the cross-Strait problem is resolving itself,” Blumenthal wrote. “It’s small wonder why many Taiwanese believe that Washington is unreliable.”
Taiwan badly needs more F-16 fighter aircraft to recapitalize its aging air fleet, Blumenthal wrote.
“None seem forthcoming. This is all the more troublesome given China’s stepped up aggression against its neighbors such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan and India,” he wrote.
“It’s just a matter of time before Beijing loses patience with Taipei’s refusal to discuss its political future. Taipei will need to show it cannot be pushed around,” he wrote.
Blumenthal concluded that it was incumbent upon the US to reward Taiwan’s China diplomacy with bilateral initiatives that increased Taipei’s international status and helped it deter China’s military coercion.
“Washington can start by highlighting to American businesses the opportunities Taiwan has created through its economic cooperation framework agreement with China,” Blumenthal wrote.
“While it negotiates a free-trade agreement with Taiwan, Washington should also send the US secretary of commerce to the island with a delegation of leading businessmen to scout out new investment opportunities,” he wrote. “Not only can the United States benefit from Taiwan’s closer links with the mainland, but more American investment on the island will also increase Taiwan’s international prestige.”
At the same time, Washington should sell F-16s and submarines to Taiwan as a “strong signal” to Beijing that its arms build-up would not go unanswered, he wrote.
“The purpose of US policy should be to discourage unneeded cross Strait tension, while binding the democratic island ever closer to Washington,” he wrote.
In Taipei yesterday, Ma said he remained confident that Taiwan would soon reach agreements with the US on a number of bilateral issues under negotiation, including the sale of F-16C/Ds.
Other major items on the agenda are the inclusion of Taiwan in the US visa waiver program and the signing of an extradition treaty.
“Although some of the problems cannot be resolved in a short period of time, I believe they will be overcome with mutual trust,” Ma told US Representative Bob Inglis, a senior Republican on the House’s Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment.
Ma said he had worked to restore mutual trust with the US and improve relations with China since his inauguration in May 2008 and this had paid off, for example with the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement talks set to resume at the end of the year.
With cross-strait ties improving, Washington no longer needs to choose between Taipei and Beijing and can develop friendly relations with both, Ma said.
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 —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS