Taiwanese officials have reportedly reached out to the US to discuss the possibility of expediting the delivery of F-16 jets to Taiwan, CNN said on Friday.
While the “Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific Command has watched with increasing concern as China has rapidly modernized its military and improved its training with an eye to Taiwan,” the US Department of State is wary of taking a more aggressive stance against China, a CNN report said.
US President Joe Biden’s “administration has discussed with Taiwanese officials the possibility of expediting the delivery of American-made F-16s to Taiwan, according to Taiwanese and US officials familiar with the talks,” the report said.
Photo: Cheng I-hwa, Bloomberg
“The sale of the 22 fighter jets was approved in 2019, but Taiwan hopes to speed up the actual delivery time — which normally can take up to 10 years — particularly in light of the recent Chinese provocations,” it said.
A total of 150 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) military aircraft entered the southwestern part of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone from Oct. 1 to Oct. 5, Ministry of National Defense data showed.
By comparison, the PLA deployed 380 military aircraft near Taiwan over the whole of last year.
Separately, a source said that the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on Wednesday held a meeting with Democratic Progressive Party legislators Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) and Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國); New Power Party Chairwoman and Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華); Michael Schiffer, senior adviser and counselor on the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; and state department officials.
In the meeting, US officials said that legislators’ suggestion about expediting the delivery of arms that had already been purchased could be looked into, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Early delivery of arms that had already been bought would antagonize Beijing less and would not escalate tension in the region, the source said, adding that such a move would convey the US’ concern regarding Beijing’s threatening attitude toward Taiwan.
It would send a clear signal to Beijing while keeping things under control, they added.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
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