As the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission officially released its annual report to the US Congress on Wednesday, commissioner Dan Blumenthal said there was unanimous agreement that “something must be done” to improve Taiwan’s air defense capabilities.
Addressing a packed hearing room in the US Senate, Blumenthal said there was “no silver bullet” that could balance the military forces facing each other across the Taiwan Strait, but that Congress needed to review the situation in a comprehensive manner.
Blumenthal, a China analyst with the American Enterprise Institute, said it was not up to the commission to recommend the sale of specific arms packages to Taipei, such as the 66 advanced F-16C/D fighter aircraft that Taiwan wants to buy.
Other sources said a number of the 12 bipartisan commissioners wanted US President Barack Obama to sell the aircraft to Taiwan, but that to get a unanimous report it decided not to include that specific recommendation in the document.
Blumenthal said all the commissioners agreed that, given the “sober facts on the eroding cross-strait air balance,” Congress had to take some action.
He hoped the report would result in the Pentagon working more closely with Taiwan on “a host” of issues that would lead to more stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Details of the report’s recommendations concerning Taiwan were published yesterday in the Taipei Times.
Created 10 years ago to advise Congress on policy toward China, the commission’s report this year was largely negative toward Beijing.
Commission vice chairwoman Carolyn Bartholomew warned that in addition to improving its air force, China had boosted its offensive air and missile capabilities and strengthened its capacity to threaten US forces and bases in the region.
“Currently, China’s conventional missile capabilities alone may be sufficient to temporarily knock out five of the six US air bases in East Asia,” she said.
“Saturation missile strikes could destroy US air defenses, runways, parked aircraft, and fuel and maintenance facilities. Complicating this scenario is the future deployment of China’s anti-ship ballistic missile, which could hold US aircraft carriers at bay outside their normal operating range,” Bartholomew said.
The 316-page report paints a dark picture of what could happen if China attacked Taiwan in the current circumstances.
According to one expert who testified before the commission, China could potentially deliver “a staggering blow” to the Taiwanese air force in the first minutes and hours of any cross-strait conflict.
Using just a quarter of its short-range ballistic missile force, China could “cut every runway at Taiwan’s ten main fighter operating bases and damage or destroy virtually every unsheltered aircraft located on them.”
“The PLA [People’s Liberation Army] Air Force would likely target any aircraft that survived the initial onslaught,” the report says.
“At this stage, without outside military support for Taiwan, the PLA would possess air superiority over the island and be able to conduct attacks on a wide range of military and economic targets with minimal losses,” it says.
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS