In a dramatic change of policy, the White House is giving “serious consideration” to selling F-16C/D jets to Taiwan. Washington insiders said the move was totally unexpected and that it could trigger a new crisis in US-China relations.
After refusing for years to sell the fighters to Taipei, the White House said on Friday that Taiwan had “a legitimate need” and that the administration of US President Barack Obama would decide in the “near term” how to address the nation’s fighter gap. The announcement comes as blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠) has fled house arrest and is believed to be seeking asylum in the US embassy in Beijing and as US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner are preparing to visit China on May 3 and 4 for a fourth round of the US-China Economic and Security Dialogue.
“This is good news for Taiwan, it is very good news,” US-Taiwan Business Council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers told the Taipei Times, adding: “This is -forward movement, it is a big step forward.”
However, together with the Chen situation and the Bo Xilai (薄熙來) scandal, it will likely cause enormous upheaval within the Beijing leadership.
The White House news broke when US Senator John Cornyn released a letter he had received from Robert Nabors, an assistant to Obama and director of the Office of Legislative Affairs. The letter spells out a deal made between Cornyn and the White House in return for Cornyn releasing his hold on the confirmation of Mark Lippert to become the top Pentagon official for Asia. Lippert was confirmed on Thursday night.
Cornyn put Lippert’s nomination on hold in October and said that he would not allow it to pass until the White House dealt with Taiwan’s request to buy 66 of the fighters, which are made in Cornyn’s district. Last year, Obama agreed to update and retrofit Taiwan’s existing and aging F-16A/Bs, but refused to address the urgent request for new F-16C/Ds.
While the White House has denied it, insiders insist that the sale has not been approved to date largely as a result of vehement objections from China. Now it would seem that Obama is taking a much tougher line with -Beijing. At least in part, this could be a tactic to enhance his image as the US presidential campaign gets under way and presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney steps up anti-Chinese rhetoric.
The letter from Nabors at the White House says: “We understand your desire to see Taiwan’s air force modernized with the addition of new F-16C/Ds.”
It says that “given the growing military threat to Taiwan,” the administration will give the sale of the fighters “serious consideration as we move forward in our planning discussions with the Taiwan military. We are committed to duly evaluating its merits as deliberations continue over -Taiwan’s long-term defense -priorities and requirements.”
According to the letter, the Pentagon will review Taiwan’s long-term defense strategy and resourcing plan and Taiwan’s “efforts to respond to the threat from the Chinese military.”
“We recognize that China has 2,300 operational combat aircraft, while our democratic partner Taiwan has only 490,” the letter adds. “We are committed to assisting Taiwan in addressing the disparity in numbers of aircraft through our work with Taiwan’s defense ministry on its development of a comprehensive defense strategy vis-a-vis China.”
“The Assistant Secretary [Lippert] in consultation with the inter-agency and the Congress, will play a lead role as the administration decides on a near-term course of action on how to address Taiwan’s fighter gap, including through the sale to Taiwan of an undetermined number of new US-made fighter aircraft,” the letter ends.
“I commend the administration for recognizing that our friend and ally Taiwan’s air force is woefully undersized and outgunned by Communist China, and their inability to adequately defend themselves poses a threat not just to their own security but to that of the United States,” Cornyn said.
The F-16s are manufactured in Cornyn’s home state of Texas and assembled by Lockheed Martin of Fort Worth. Foreign policy specialist Josh Roginwriting said on Foreign Policy magazine’s Web site that the White House position on the F-16C/Ds could “spark a new crisis” with China.
“The White House does not explicitly promise to sell Taiwan new F-16 fighter jets, as Cornyn wants, promising only to give the matter ‘serious consideration,’” he said.
“The decision to consider the move sets up a potential political clash with China, which has cut military contacts with the US in the past over American arms sales to Taiwan,” Bloomberg news said.
In a printed statement, Hammond-Chambers said that the language in the new White House letter was significantly different from a Feb. 15 letter in which the Pentagon said: “We believe the F-16A/B upgrade effectively meets Taiwan’s current needs.”
Hammond-Chambers urged the administration to quickly announce the sale of F-16C/Ds to Taiwan and added: “At a time when America needs every job it can generate, such a sale would mean more than US$17 billion to the US economy and it would be protecting more than 87,000 jobs. It would also serve to protect peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which is a core strategic interest of the United States.”
TECH EFFECT: While Chiayi County was the oldest region in the nation, Hsinchu county and city, home of the nation’s chip industry, were the youngest, the report showed Seven of the nation’s administrative regions, encompassing 57.2 percent of Taiwan’s townships and villages, became “super-aged societies” in June, the Ministry of the Interior said in its latest report. A region is considered super-aged if 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older. The ministry report showed that Taiwan had 4,391,744 people aged 65 or older as of June, representing 18.76 percent of the total population and an increase of 1,024,425 people compared with August 2018. In June, the nation’s elderly dependency ratio was 27.3 senior citizens per 100 working-aged people, an increase of 7.39 people over August 2018, it said. That
‘UNITED FRONT’: The married couple allegedly produced talk show videos for platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to influence Taiwan’s politics A husband and wife affiliated with the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) were indicted yesterday for allegedly receiving NT$74 million (US$2.32 million) from China to make radio and digital media propaganda to promote the Chinese government’s political agenda and influence the outcome of Taiwan’s elections. Chang Meng-chung (張孟崇) and his wife, Hung Wen-ting (洪文婷), allegedly received a total of NT$74 million from China between 2021 and last year to promote candidates favored by Beijing, contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and election laws, the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office said. The couple acted as Beijing’s propaganda mouthpiece by disparaging Hong Kong democracy activists
EARLY ARRIVALS: The first sets of HIMARS purchased from the US arrived ahead of their scheduled delivery, with troops already training on the platforms, a source said The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it spotted 35 Chinese military aircraft, including fighters and bombers, flying to the south of Taiwan proper on the way to exercises in the Pacific, a second consecutive day it has reported such activities. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not respond to a request for comment on the missions, reported just days before tomorrow’s US presidential election. The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Its arms sales to Taipei include a US$2 billion missile system announced last month. The MND said that from 9am yesterday,
A Control Yuan member yesterday said he would initiate an investigation into why the number of foreign nationals injured or killed in traffic incidents has nearly doubled in the past few years, and whether government agencies’ mechanisms were ineffective in ensuring road safety. Control Yuan member Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said in a news release that Taiwan has been described as a “living hell for pedestrians” and traffic safety has become an important national security issue. According to a National Audit Office report released last year, more than 780,000 foreign nationals were legally residing in Taiwan in 2019, which grew to more than
RSS