US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen has warned China about intercepting US reconnaissance flights over the Taiwan Strait.
He was speaking in Washington following the revelation this week that two Chinese Su-27 fighter planes entered Taiwanese airspace last month as they attempted to drive away a US U-2 spy aircraft.
Military sources said one of the Chinese fighters did not leave Taiwanese airspace until after the Taiwan Air Force scrambled two F-16 aircraft to intercept it.
Mullen, in a briefing to foreign press based in Washington on Monday, said he has discussed reconnaissance operations with Chinese Chief of the General Staff General Chen Bingde (陳炳德) in the US and during a recent visit to Beijing.
Asked directly about the incident above the Taiwan Strait, Mullen said: “This is international airspace and we won’t be deterred from flying in international airspace.”
He said that under international standards in place for “a long, long time,” the US had the right to fly over the area.
Mullen acknowledged that China wanted the flights to end and for the US to stop reconnaissance over the Taiwan Strait.
However, he said: “I don’t see that as the case. We’re not going to do that. These reconnaissance flights are important.”
“I think we both have to be very careful about how we fly them. We have to be careful about the intercepts. We have to make sure that we don’t repeat what happened in 2001. These are lives that are at stake up there,” Mullen said.
Mullen added that intercepts escalated the tension and “could put countries in a position to miscalculate and go in the wrong direction with respect to stability and peaceful resolution of these kinds of things.”
The admiral, who retires on Sept. 30, was referring to what became known as the Hainan Island incident of April 1, 2001, when a US EP-3 intelligence aircraft and a Chinese J-8 fighter collided, causing the death of the Chinese pilot. The EP-3 was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan, resulting in an international dispute.
Taiwan supporters in the US have been quick to point out that the latest incident over the Taiwan Strait dramatically demonstrates the need for the US to update -Taiwan’s aging F-16A/B aircraft and sell Taipei 66 new advanced F-16C/D aircraft.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton confirmed last week that a decision about the fighters would be announced by Oct. 1.
Asked if he thought the US would sell Taiwan the new F-16s, Mullen said: “It’s really a decision for the president of the United States to make and I would not preview that even if I knew what the president was going to do.”
“This is an issue that General Chen Bingde and I discussed when he was here, both privately and publicly, same thing when I was in China. I am aware that this is an issue of great interest not just in the US, but also in China. Clearly, the Chinese would strongly prefer us to stop doing this [selling arms to Taiwan],” Mullen said.
“The point I made to General Chen was that we have a relationship and responsibilities, and they’re legal responsibilities, in my country to support the Taiwan Relations Act. I would hope that in future, when we come up against these very difficult issues, whether they’re reconnaissance operations, South China Sea, Taiwan arms sales, that we are able to sustain the military relationship, which has been renewed,” he said.
In the past, China has broken off the military-to-military relationship with the US as a result of new arms sales to Taiwan.
Mullen said that the military-to-military relationship was “critical” and that terminating it even for brief periods of time had “a significant down side that works against stability in the region.”
“When we have another bump in the road, should that occur, I hope we can work our way through that with the Chinese military,” he said.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
A woman who allegedly spiked the food and drinks of an Australian man with rat poison, leaving him in intensive care, has been charged with attempted murder, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The woman, identified by her surname Yang (楊), is accused of repeatedly poisoning Alex Shorey over the course of several months last year to prevent the Australian man from leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said in a statement. Shorey was evacuated back to Australia on May 3 last year after being admitted to intensive care in Taiwan. According to prosecutors, Yang put bromadiolone, a rodenticide that prevents blood from
A Japanese space rocket carrying a Taiwanese satellite blasted off yesterday, but was later seen spiraling downward in the distance as the company said the launch attempt had failed. It was the second attempt by the Japanese start-up Space One to become the country’s first private firm to put a satellite into orbit, after its first try in March ended in a mid-air explosion. This time, its solid-fuel Kairos rocket had been carrying five satellites, including one from the Taiwan Space Agency and others designed by Japanese students and corporate ventures. Spectators gathered near the company’s coastal Spaceport Kii launch pad in Japan’s
RSS