Taiwan: the Island's Security Is "On Hold"

Take a look at this recent op-ed piece by Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council. The focus is on Taiwanese security issues. Link xie-xie to View From Taiwan.

I give you a few relevant pieces. Do read the whole thing.

At a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) asked Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte for a status report on arms sales to Taiwan. Mr. Negroponte responded that since Taiwan’s legislature approved substantial defense funding in 2007, the U.S. has not taken steps to advance Taiwan arms sales. He added that prior to moving forward, the U.S. will first “await developments there.”

But when Mr. Negroponte suggested that U.S. arms sales were stalled due to the political transition underway in Taiwan, he neglected to mention that his department is currently sitting on an unprecedented seven Taiwan arms sales notifications (valued at $11 billion) ready for informal review by Congress.

In April 2001, President Bush released a significant package of weapons to Taiwan to aid it in its military modernization efforts. This show of support for Taiwan’s security, consistent with U.S. obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), was welcomed on both sides of the Pacific.

But Taiwan’s then-President Chen Shui-bian miscalculated in his attempts to secure funding for the package, and the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) concluded that opposing U.S. weapons purchases would aid its domestic political fortunes. Thus, the long-held security consensus in Taiwan broke down, and the U.S. offer sat dormant for four years. In June and December of 2007, however, the domestic political impasse broke and Taiwan passed funding for all of the items released in 2001.

It is difficult to gauge why the Bush administration is delaying congressional notification on these sales. Perhaps they feel that cross-Strait relations are at a sensitive time and the U.S. should avoid provoking China, or that Taiwan needs to undergo a period of responsible behavior to reestablish trust.

Good grief. The dangerous limbo is both the child of the self-centered KMT (that I well knew) . . . and now currently of the US? This needs some looking into.

Meanwhile, the increasingly farcical President Ma of Taiwan wants China to roll back the 1000 missiles it has pointed at the island nation. Good luck with that, pal. China's been increasing the number of missiles and also increasing its military spending. Ma and the KMT can go "pretty please" and hat in hand, but I doubt Beijing will remove a single missile any time soon, no matter what people might say. Besides, reducing the total number of missiles isn't the same as getting rid of all of them.

UPDATE: Defense News reports that the US has frozen $12 billion in arms sales to Taiwan. Read the whole depressing, maddening thing. Blurb here:

As China and Taiwan prepare for their first official talks in more than a decade, sources in both Taipei and Washington say the U.S. State Department has decided to freeze all congressional notifications for $12 billion worth of arms sales to Taiwan. Sources are mixed on whether the freeze will extend through the remainder of the Bush administration or only until after the August Beijing Olympics. Fears in Taipei are the freeze could become permanent with a new U.S. president in January.

The freeze is part of an effort not to derail Beijing-Taipei negotiations, scheduled to begin June 11, or disturb plans by U.S. President George W. Bush to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

The freeze covers about $12 billion worth of weapon sales now being processed under the Pentagon's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program and items still awaiting approval, including 30 Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters, 60 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, eight diesel electric submarines, four Raytheon Patriot PAC-3 air defense missile batteries and 66 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 50/52 fighters. The freeze does not include 12 Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, which have already been approved.

I doubt that I really need to tell you what I think about this. You know me well enough by now. In one of the real ironies of this entire debacle, I find my personal convictions echoed by someone from the Ma camp, who is quoted in the article as saying this:

A source close to Ma stated his administration will continue to push for the release of F-16s, arguing Taiwan must be able to negotiate with China from a position of strength.

"Otherwise, the Chinese will only dictate terms to Taiwan," he said.

Well, OBVIOUSLY.

View From Taiwan also links to this and names his post "Appeasement of China Reaches Unprecedented Heights as Bush Capitulates on Arms."

UPDATE: Radio Australia reports that Taiwan is urging the US to approve sales of F-16 fighter jets ASAP.