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China Fumes Over Taiwan Arms Package, Even Though Fighter Planes Are Missing
Taiwan's nationalist KMT government welcomed the Obama administration's notification to Congress on Friday of its intention to sell the island nation $6.4 billion worth of weaponry, but the opposition Democratic Progressive Party said F-16s should have been the core of the package.
(CNSNews.com) – China’s weekend response to the U.S. announcement on arms sales to Taiwan was characteristically strident. But more significant for close observers of the rift in the Taiwan Strait is what was left out of the offered package.
In the face of the rapid modernization of the Chinese military, Taipei has long sought to buy as many as 66 F-16 Fighting Falcon C/D fighter jets.
Taiwan’s nationalist KMT government welcomed the Obama administration’s notification to Congress on Friday of its intention to sell the island nation $6.4 billion worth of weaponry, including 60 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, 114 Patriot PAC-3 missile systems, and three Osprey-class mine hunting vessels.
But the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), more distrustful of Beijing’s intentions than the ruling party, said F-16s should have been the core of the package, and it urged the KMT government to continue pressing for the fighters.
Taiwanese Premier Wu Den-yih said on Sunday the government was still negotiating with the U.S. over the F-16s, the official CNA news agency reported.
The weapons offer is in line with the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which commits the U.S. to provide Taiwan with the help it needs to defend itself against unprovoked aggression. It will move ahead if Congress does not voice any objections within a 30-day period.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province whose “reunification” with the mainland is inevitable. The U.S. military and intelligence agencies say preparations for a possible conflict over Taiwan is the primary goal of Beijing’s military modernization and expansion programs.
In its 2009 annual report on Chinese military power, the Pentagon said China has a total of 1,655 fighter aircraft, 330 of which are based within range of Taiwan; Taiwan has 390 fighters.
The report said Chinese fighters pose a potential threat to Taiwan’s air defense systems, and that precision strikes “could support a campaign to degrade Taiwan’s defenses, neutralize Taiwan’s military and political leadership, and possibly break the Taiwan people’s will to fight.”
A key goal for Taiwanese air defenses is to defend the island against missile attack. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry in its first quadrennial defense review reported last year that Beijing now has more the 1,300 short-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles deployed opposite the island.
Even without the F-16s, the arms package announced on Friday drew, as expected, an angry response from China. Defense officials announced a suspension of military exchanges with the U.S., which resumed just last July after an earlier suspension.
The foreign ministry also said Beijing would apply “sanctions” on companies supplying the weapons – although U.S. firms are already not permitted to sell arms to China.
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi charged that the U.S. move “damaged China’s national security,” and official media published scathing commentaries.
“No country worthy of respect can sit idle while its national security is endangered and core interests damaged,” said one, in the state-run China Daily. “When someone spits on you, you have to get back.”
The writer characterized the decision as the latest in a series of what China views as hostile U.S. actions, including a midair collision between a U.S. surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter in 2001 and the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during NATO’s 1999 campaign in the Balkans.
The U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, which supports U.S. arms sales to Taiwan under the TRA, expressed concern that the furious Chinese response was aimed at scaring off further sales, especially those of the advanced fighter planes Taiwan is seeking.
“While the Chinese cannot overturn the programs that were notified today, they almost certainly believe that they can make enough of a fuss to discourage the Obama administration from making further decisions regarding arms sales to Taiwan – particularly on the possible follow-on sale of F-16s,” chamber president Rupert Hammond-Chambers said in a statement.
“It is essential that we hold firm on our commitments to Taiwan, and that we provide the island with all the equipment it requires to maintain a credible defense,” he said. “If China is able – with its actions, tantrums, and threats – to ‘spook’ the Obama Administration into indefinite delay, then China has achieved its goal and Taiwan’s ability to control its own airspace will start to dramatically wane.”
The director of the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, Walter Lohman, praised Friday’s announcement but said the F-16s – “the real meat of Taiwan’s pending requests” since 2006 – should be quickly addressed.
Lohman said the limited nature of the sale symbolized “an unwillingness to sell anything that truly counters China’s rapidly modernizing armed forces and the threat they pose to its neighbors.”
“What good is reserving the prerogative to sell weapons to Taiwan if we never get around to selling them what they need most?”
Asked whether the decision to omit the F-16s was based on concerns about China’s reaction, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip Crowley denied this was the case, saying the decision “was based on our evaluation of the defensive needs of Taiwan.”
“We’re well aware of Taiwan’s interest in acquiring F-16 aircraft, and we have discussed that with them on a variety of occasions,” a senior administration official told a background teleconference briefing.
“We’re in the process of assessing Taiwan’s needs and requirements for that capability,” the official said. “I’m not in a position to give you a sense of how long that’s going to take right now.”
Cooperation at risk?
The new rift with China comes amid other bilateral tensions, among them the row over Internet freedom and differences over the roles played by each at December’s climate change talks in Copenhagen.
In a commentary, the official Xinhua news agency warned that China will now withhold cooperation in other important areas.
“China-U.S. cooperation is indispensable in solving counter-terrorism, nuclear nonproliferation, climate change and other major international and regional security issues,” it said. If the sale goes ahead, it “will cause seriously negative effects on China-U.S. exchanges and cooperation in important areas.”
Arguably the most pressing issue is the Iranian nuclear standoff, but China has already long resisted attempts by the U.S. and others to take tougher measures against Iran at the U.N. Security Council.
In Paris on Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged China to “think about the longer term implications” of a nuclear-armed Iran, including a regional arms race and the possibility that Israel would regard the situation as an existential threat. Israel has warned it could launch a military attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.
Crowley said the U.S. in its dealings with the Chinese on the issue was making the point that an Iran with nuclear weapons would not be good for China.
If Iran ultimately develops nuclear weapons, he said, this will trigger “significant decisions” by other countries in the region and have an impact on oil markets on which China, like other major economies, depends.
Lockheed Martin calls its F-16 Fighting Falcon “the world’s most capable multirole fighter.” More than 4,300 of the fighter planes have been made for 24 countries. (Image: Lockheed Martin)
In the face of the rapid modernization of the Chinese military, Taipei has long sought to buy as many as 66 F-16 Fighting Falcon C/D fighter jets.
Taiwan’s nationalist KMT government welcomed the Obama administration’s notification to Congress on Friday of its intention to sell the island nation $6.4 billion worth of weaponry, including 60 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, 114 Patriot PAC-3 missile systems, and three Osprey-class mine hunting vessels.
But the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), more distrustful of Beijing’s intentions than the ruling party, said F-16s should have been the core of the package, and it urged the KMT government to continue pressing for the fighters.
Taiwanese Premier Wu Den-yih said on Sunday the government was still negotiating with the U.S. over the F-16s, the official CNA news agency reported.
The weapons offer is in line with the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which commits the U.S. to provide Taiwan with the help it needs to defend itself against unprovoked aggression. It will move ahead if Congress does not voice any objections within a 30-day period.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province whose “reunification” with the mainland is inevitable. The U.S. military and intelligence agencies say preparations for a possible conflict over Taiwan is the primary goal of Beijing’s military modernization and expansion programs.
In its 2009 annual report on Chinese military power, the Pentagon said China has a total of 1,655 fighter aircraft, 330 of which are based within range of Taiwan; Taiwan has 390 fighters.
The report said Chinese fighters pose a potential threat to Taiwan’s air defense systems, and that precision strikes “could support a campaign to degrade Taiwan’s defenses, neutralize Taiwan’s military and political leadership, and possibly break the Taiwan people’s will to fight.”
A key goal for Taiwanese air defenses is to defend the island against missile attack. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry in its first quadrennial defense review reported last year that Beijing now has more the 1,300 short-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles deployed opposite the island.
Even without the F-16s, the arms package announced on Friday drew, as expected, an angry response from China. Defense officials announced a suspension of military exchanges with the U.S., which resumed just last July after an earlier suspension.
The foreign ministry also said Beijing would apply “sanctions” on companies supplying the weapons – although U.S. firms are already not permitted to sell arms to China.
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi charged that the U.S. move “damaged China’s national security,” and official media published scathing commentaries.
“No country worthy of respect can sit idle while its national security is endangered and core interests damaged,” said one, in the state-run China Daily. “When someone spits on you, you have to get back.”
The writer characterized the decision as the latest in a series of what China views as hostile U.S. actions, including a midair collision between a U.S. surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter in 2001 and the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during NATO’s 1999 campaign in the Balkans.
The U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, which supports U.S. arms sales to Taiwan under the TRA, expressed concern that the furious Chinese response was aimed at scaring off further sales, especially those of the advanced fighter planes Taiwan is seeking.
“While the Chinese cannot overturn the programs that were notified today, they almost certainly believe that they can make enough of a fuss to discourage the Obama administration from making further decisions regarding arms sales to Taiwan – particularly on the possible follow-on sale of F-16s,” chamber president Rupert Hammond-Chambers said in a statement.
“It is essential that we hold firm on our commitments to Taiwan, and that we provide the island with all the equipment it requires to maintain a credible defense,” he said. “If China is able – with its actions, tantrums, and threats – to ‘spook’ the Obama Administration into indefinite delay, then China has achieved its goal and Taiwan’s ability to control its own airspace will start to dramatically wane.”
The director of the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, Walter Lohman, praised Friday’s announcement but said the F-16s – “the real meat of Taiwan’s pending requests” since 2006 – should be quickly addressed.
Lohman said the limited nature of the sale symbolized “an unwillingness to sell anything that truly counters China’s rapidly modernizing armed forces and the threat they pose to its neighbors.”
Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon (Image: Lockheed Martin)
Asked whether the decision to omit the F-16s was based on concerns about China’s reaction, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip Crowley denied this was the case, saying the decision “was based on our evaluation of the defensive needs of Taiwan.”
“We’re well aware of Taiwan’s interest in acquiring F-16 aircraft, and we have discussed that with them on a variety of occasions,” a senior administration official told a background teleconference briefing.
“We’re in the process of assessing Taiwan’s needs and requirements for that capability,” the official said. “I’m not in a position to give you a sense of how long that’s going to take right now.”
Cooperation at risk?
The new rift with China comes amid other bilateral tensions, among them the row over Internet freedom and differences over the roles played by each at December’s climate change talks in Copenhagen.
In a commentary, the official Xinhua news agency warned that China will now withhold cooperation in other important areas.
“China-U.S. cooperation is indispensable in solving counter-terrorism, nuclear nonproliferation, climate change and other major international and regional security issues,” it said. If the sale goes ahead, it “will cause seriously negative effects on China-U.S. exchanges and cooperation in important areas.”
Arguably the most pressing issue is the Iranian nuclear standoff, but China has already long resisted attempts by the U.S. and others to take tougher measures against Iran at the U.N. Security Council.
In Paris on Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged China to “think about the longer term implications” of a nuclear-armed Iran, including a regional arms race and the possibility that Israel would regard the situation as an existential threat. Israel has warned it could launch a military attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.
Crowley said the U.S. in its dealings with the Chinese on the issue was making the point that an Iran with nuclear weapons would not be good for China.
If Iran ultimately develops nuclear weapons, he said, this will trigger “significant decisions” by other countries in the region and have an impact on oil markets on which China, like other major economies, depends.
