For the second day in a row, the US Department of State on Friday refused to confirm whether the Bush administration had imposed a freeze on arms sales to Taiwan, as a spokesman for the department appeared to issue a mild rebuke to Pacific commander Admiral Timothy Keating for stating that a freeze was in place.
The department’s comments came as the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) criticized Keating for claiming that the US is not concerned about the freeze’s long-term potential harm to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a Chinese attack, while a former senior Pentagon official called on US President George W. Bush to lift the freeze before he leaves office.
Asked about the freeze at his regular daily press briefing, spokesman Sean McCormack repeated a statement issued by Foggy Bottom on Thursday that the administration “faithfully implements the Taiwan Relations Act, under which the United States makes available items for Taiwan to maintain a sufficient defense.”
He refused to go beyond mentioning that the arms sales approval process was an interagency one and that the department does not comment on individual weapons systems under consideration.
Asked about Keating’s disclosure, McCormack said: “I would point you to what I have just given you as the official United States government policy that is applicable for all US government agencies, whether it is the Department of Defense, Department of State or any other part of the US government.”
That statement contrasted with Keating’s assertion, made during a presentation on Wednesday at the Heritage Foundation think tank, that the freeze “is administration policy.”
Keating said that this is because “the folks who make these decisions” have decided there is “no pressing, compelling need at this moment” for sale of the arms package to Taiwan.
In referring to “the folks” during the presentation and in a briefing with reporters afterwards, Keating focused on the role of the White House, State Department and the National Security Council while discounting the role of the Department of Defense, his employer.
Over the years, the Pentagon has been the main proponent of greater arms sales to Taiwan, even as tensions rose between the White House and the State Department, on the one hand, and the government of former president Chen Shui-Bian (陳水扁) on the other. The Department of Defense is said to oppose the freeze and Pacific Command is particularly irked, sources have said.
FAPA entered the fray on Friday with a statement criticizing Keating for saying “I am not overly concerned” about the long-term implications of the freeze, which will hamper Taiwan’s military preparedness in the long term as China continues to modernize.
“Admiral Keating’s statement flies in the face of the most recent Pentagon report on Chinese military power … [in which the Pentagon] expressed concern about the military balance tilting towards China and warned against China’s military projection in the region,” FAPA president Bob Yang (楊英育) said.
Yang also took issue with Keating’s statement that the US Navy regularly consults with the Chinese military on weapons sales to Taiwan.
Yang said that Keating’s statement “is not consistent with [former US] president [Ronald] Reagan’s Six Assurances in which [he] promised Taiwan that the US would not consult with the Chinese on arms sales to Taiwan.”
Also on Friday, a former senior US defense official sharply criticized the Bush administration for freezing the arms sales and called on President Bush to approve the sales before he leaves office in January.
In an article published in the Wall Street Journal on Friday, Ed Ross, the former operations director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency — the Pentagon organization that handles weapons sales to Taiwan — blamed “high-ranking officials” at the State Department and National Security Council for holding up the sales.
“This is an issue which deserves President Bush’s immediate attention,” Ross said.
Approval of the sales now is especially important, Ross wrote, to help ensure the success of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) diplomatic opening to Beijing.
“Beijing has proven all too often that it will demand much and give little and that it sees the use and threat of force as an instrument of diplomacy,” he said.
“As Taiwan enters this challenging period of detente with China, it needs strong US moral and material support more than ever. By taking action on US arms sales to Taiwan before he leaves office, President Bush would bolster a democratic Taiwan and make it much easier for his successor to withstand pressure from Beijing as arms sales contracts are concluded and weapons systems are delivered,” he said.
Ross said that over the past eight years, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-dominated Legislative Yuan’s consistent refusal to approve budgets for US arms purchases and worsening relations between Chen and Bush had done “considerable” damage to Taiwan’s military position vis-a-vis China.
“Mutual confidence between Taipei and Washington may have been permanently weakened” at a time in which “the US was becoming increasingly dependent on improved US-China relations … The US has become increasingly reluctant to take the heat from China over weapons sales,” he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS