The US is ready to hold back military technology from Euro-pean allies over EU steps to revoke its arms embargo on China, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
The British financial daily quoted unnamed Pentagon officials who said the US would likely withdraw government backing for measures to improve military technology transfers to European countries if the EU begins to sell arms to China.
At a Brussels summit on Dec. 17, EU leaders declared their "political will" to lift an arms embargo on China, possibly by next June, while stressing that Beijing must respect human rights and regional stability.
"This has the potential to be a big brawl," an anonymous senior Pentagon official involved in Chinese policy told the Financial Times. "They're talking about helping the Chinese kill Americans more effectively. This is not what Europe should be doing."
Another official told the newspaper: "If a situation arises where European systems are pointed [by China] at American personnel and platforms, one cannot just assume we're going to continue our arms sales.
"Efforts we've made to open, widen, deepen transatlantic defense industrial trade are going to be circumscribed," the officials said.
EU leaders said after summit talks that they were "looking forward to further progress in all areas" of the 25-nation bloc's relationship with China, hoping for greater economic cooperation with a country whose economy has grown in leaps and bounds since the arms embargo was imposed in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The Financial Times said that Britain stands to be the hardest hit by any US retaliation over any EU moves to sell military technology to China.
British firms BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce are the Pentagon's two biggest suppliers.
Britain has an increasing reliance on US military technology, having won backing from the US Congress three months ago for special preferred status when applying to gain access to US military technology.
EU countries like France and Germany -- both major arms exporters -- agree with China that the ban is "outdated."
But the US argued that a resumption of European arms sales will undermine Taiwan and encourage domestic repression in China.
China wants access to cutting-edge technology to upgrade its weapons systems and to reduce its reliance on Russian exports, analysts said.
They said that with the US intent on maintaining its own arms embargo on China, Europe is the only other outlet capable of offering high-tech systems such as radars and sonars coveted in Beijing.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS