The US House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved a resolution that aims to press the administration of US President George W. Bush to allow Taiwan to purchase advanced F-16C/D fighter aircraft to proceed, despite State Department efforts to obstruct the sale. The approval was by a voice vote without objections.
The action sends the measure to the full House, which is expected to take it up soon. The measure was passed under a special House rule, which allows it to be voted on early, but which requires a two-thirds affirmative vote for it to pass.
The action came at an unusually contentious meeting of the committee, after members squabbled over issues related to Ethiopia and Iraq. The Taiwan measure was delayed for more than two hours, presenting time restraints that prevented the committee from engaging in what was expected to be a spirited discussion of the issues and recent administration policies toward Taiwan.
The bill, which is based on US commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) of 1978 to supply the nation with defensive weapons, states that it "shall continue to be the policy of the United States" to make available to Taiwan arms sufficient to defend itself, and that Washington must make arms sales decisions "based solely" on "the legitimate defense needs of Taiwan," with decisions shared jointly by the Congress and the administration and not based on political considerations.
Sponsors made it clear that the bill was aimed at Taiwan's efforts to buy 66 advanced F-16C/D fighters. The issue has taken on urgency because a Legislative Yuan budget measure allocating some US$448 million to start the purchase process would lapse if the first stage was not approved by the US by the end of next month.
Sponsors clearly hoped that an early House vote could prod the Bush administration -- which has so far opposed the purchases -- to let the initial phase proceed in time for the funds to be spent.
The measure, which was sponsored by both committee chairman Tom Lantos, a Democrat, and the ranking Republican, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, gathered nearly 20 co-sponsors during the short time between being introduced on Tuesday and the Wednesday morning committee meeting.
The measure was nearly derailed by a last-minute objection by the committee's Asia subcommittee chairman, Eni Faleomavega, that the measure was unneeded and would be unnecessarily provocative to China.
But time constraints forced Faleomavega, who has been considered a friend of Taiwan in the House, to declare that he would not oppose the bill, allowing it to be approved quickly by a voice vote.
Lantos voiced his "strong support" for the measure.
"Under the Taiwan Relations Act we are committed to help Taiwan defend itself," he said. "Taiwan's democratically-elected leader has made the decision to purchase additional F-16s to defend themselves, and the administration must respond positively to this very legitimate request."
Ros-Lehtinen, in a prepared statement that she did not deliver because of the time constraints, warned that China's military build-up, which was documented in a Pentagon report in May, "poses a long-term threat to Taiwan and ultimately to the US military presence in Asia."
"Taiwan's national legislature recently demonstrated a renewed commitment to safeguarding the island's national security" by passing this year's defense budget with the F-16 funds in it, Ros Lehtinen said.
"However, despite the requirements of the TRA and what Taiwanese officials have described as an `urgent and legitimate' need to upgrade its ageing air force by buying newer version F-16s, the Bush administration has not responded to Taiwan's clear interest in receiving price and availability data for these aircraft," she said.
Tancredo, one of Taiwan's most fervent US supporters, chastised Bush for sending "mixed messages" to Taiwan and for violating an inauguration pledge to oppose tyranny and oppression.
"I am beginning to think that perhaps when President Bush made his famous inaugural pronouncement, he should have added an addendum: Offer not available in Taiwan. These kinds of insincere promises and glaring inconsistencies are both disappointing and dangerous. They prompt our friends to question our reliability as an ally -- and our enemies to doubt our resolve," he said.
"The matter of Taiwan's F-16 request is just the latest example of this disturbing phenomenon," Tancredo said in remarks prepared for presentation at the meeting.
Taiwan-born congressman David Wu, a committee member, voiced support for the measure.
"For over fifty years, the United States and Taiwan have fostered a close relationship, which has been of mutual political, economic, cultural and strategic advantage. I believe that the United States should continue to support the legitimate defense needs of Taiwan," he said in a statement.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but