Taiwan still wants the US to approve further weapons sales despite a marked thaw in tensions between Taipei and Beijing, Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said on Friday in Washington.
Chiang said on a visit to Washington that national security remained paramount for Taiwan and “for its democracy.”
“In order to have a credible deterrence to prevent any future miscalculation, it is reasonable and necessary for Taiwan to continue to have those armaments that we cannot manufacture ourselves,” he told reporters.
Chiang said that Taiwan still had a standing request for weapons, including F-16 fighter jets. The US in January approved a US$6.4 billion package, including helicopters, anti-missile defenses and mine-sweepers.
China protested the sale.
Despite the signing of the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) on June 29 that marks closer trade and cooperation between the two sides, Chiang said it was too early for Beijing and Taipei to engage in formal talks on a long-term political settlement.
“We don’t think ... that our mutual understanding and mutual trust is mature enough to talk about those sovereignty issues,” Chiang said.
Critics of the ECFA fear that the agreement will jeopardize Taiwan’s de facto independence and may eventually turn it into a Chinese territory along the lines of Hong Kong and Macau.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, Chiang said that any future free-trade agreements Taiwan wants to sign with its trading partners should be solely up to the two parties concerned.
“It is hard to deny that Beijing won’t have any political influence,” he said when asked if China could interfere in such deals, but “no matter what, a free-trade deal is still a matter that should be decided between Taiwan and its trading partner. They have the final say.”
On concerns that the tariff-reducing measures in the deal could have a negative impact on some industries, Chiang said that vulnerable industries, such as agricultural products, were excluded from the measures. He added that the agreement does not permit laborers from China to work in Taiwan.
Chiang arrived in Washington on Thursday after visiting New York last week to speak with US think tanks and media outlets about the ECFA. During his visit to Washington, Chiang will meet representatives of the Brookings Institution and media outlets.
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