The US House of Representatives has given overwhelming approval to a bill intended to make it easier and more cost-effective for Taiwan to buy eight diesel-electric submarines from the US by dividing the design and construction phases and giving Taipei more options in the purchase.
The bill also contains provisions to enhance military ties between the US and Taiwan, and to penalize foreign firms that sell arms to China that could be used to attack Taiwan and engage US forces coming to Taiwan's aid.
The provisions are part of legislation that would authorize Pentagon spending and programs for fiscal 2007, which begins on Oct. 1.
The House approved the bill, 396 to 31, on Thursday after two days of lengthy debate.
The bill now goes to the Senate, where the future of these provisions are uncertain.
The Senate traditionally eliminates such narrowly-focused provisions in its authorization bills, and last year it rejected provisions identical to those in the current bill regarding US-Taiwan military relations and arms sales to China.
The diesel submarine provision is a new one this year, and supporters are hopeful that it will survive. The Senate is expected to take up its version of the bill later this month.
The submarine provision would reaffirm that the US policy is to sell the subs to Taiwan and requires the Pentagon to make available information to Taiwan on various options to help the country make good decisions on the purchase. It also calls on the Legislative Yuan to "make every effort to support the president of Taiwan" by approving funding for the purchases.
The amendment was sponsored by Republican Representative Rob Simmons from Connecticut, whose election district is the home of the Electric Boat division of the giant defense contractor, General Dynamics. Electric Boat, the main supplier of submarines to the US Navy, based in Groton, Connecticut, and would likely be where Taiwan's subs would be built.
Simmons, who was a CIA officer in Taiwan in the 1970s and whose biography says he is fluent in Mandarin, outlined his plan for the subs purchase in a speech in Taiwan in February.
His idea would separate the relatively low-cost design portion of the work from the expensive construction portion, to give Taiwan a chance to reassess the project after the design is completed.
But sources say many US Navy officers oppose the sale, and some reports say support for the plan is waning in Washington, amid fears that successful construction of the subs would sap support for the US' all-nuclear sub fleet, which is far more expensive than the diesel option.
However, supporters of the Simmons' plan in Congress dispute those reports and say official US Navy opinion is still positive.
Simmons also disputes the US$12 billion price tag that the Bush administration has put on the subs, saying Electric Boat estimates it can build them for US$8 billion, assuming no cost overruns.
The defense appropriation bill would also mandate an exchange program between senior US and Taiwanese military officers and officials to improve Taiwan's defenses against any Chinese attack. It would also require that visits to Taiwan be included in a National Defense University program of field study for promising officers.
It would also penalize foreign firms that sell China arms or technology that "could be used to threaten the US or undermine the security of Taiwan or the stability of the West Pacific region."
Any firm violating the provision would be barred from selling to the US military or participating in joint weapons development for at least five years.
That provision, originally introduced last year, was specifically aimed at European nations at a time when the EU was considering lifting its embargo on arms sales to China, but includes all foreign firms.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors