Members of Congress castigated the administration of US President George W. Bush on Tuesday for its decision to freeze arms sales to Taiwan, saying it violates the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) pledge to sell Taipei defensive weapons, and blaming the administration for trying to curry favor with Beijing at Taiwan’s expense.
The lawmakers, seeking a last glimmer of hope, made their comments as the House of Representatives approved by a voice vote without objections a bill to require the secretive Bush administration to level with Congress on arms sales to Taiwan, a bill which is seen as a strong endorsement of ending the year-long freeze imposed by the White House on arms sales.
The freeze has halted progress on some US$11 billion to US$12 billion in arms sales that Bush approved in April 2001.
While largely symbolic because the Senate is not likely to take up the bill in time for tomorrow’s scheduled adjournment of Congress, the House measure is the strongest passed by either chamber this year in support of arms sales to Taiwan.
The bill appeared dead as late as last week because the House Foreign Affairs Committee refused to add it to a list of bills it approved in its last meeting this year. But it was resurrected when the committee’s chairman, Representative Howard Berman, allowed it to circumvent the committee and go directly to the House floor for a vote.
Meanwhile, fervent Taiwan supporter Representative Tom Tancredo is preparing legislation demanding that the Bush administration sell Taiwan the arms package as soon as practicable, even if it means circumventing the requirements of the congressional notification process.
The aim of the bill is to speed up the process, which normally can take weeks or months of consultation with Congress before arms can be sold.
Congressional staffers involved in the process have told the Taipei Times that the administration has not even begun the process, virtually assuring that the sales are dead for this year and maybe for some time to come.
Commenting on the bill approved on Tuesday, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the author of the measure and the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Relations Committee, told her fellow lawmakers that “For almost 30 years, the judicious sales of defensive weapons has been an essential element of US support for a secure, for a stable, for a democratic Taiwan as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
“Now [is] not the time to backtrack from that historic and bipartisan policy,” she said.
Representative Shelley Berkley, a co-chairman of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, urged the administration to communicate to Congress “if it will in fact deliver the arms that they have already promised to Taiwan ... or will this administration continue to curry favor with the Chinese and refuse to help our democratic ally in time of need.”
Representative David Scot, a committee member, said the US “must assure that the thriving democracy of Taiwan has the capacity necessary to defend itself,” under the TRA, “based solely on the security needs of Taiwan. Obviously, the White House does not understand the TRA.”
Ros-Lehtinen took special objection to comments by Admiral Timothy Keating, the top commander of US forces in Asia, that he had talked with Chinese military leaders about the arms freeze and arms sales to Taiwan generally.
Keating became the only US official to confirm the existence of the freeze during a speech in Washington in July.
She called “disturbing” the fact that “the Chinese leadership had some input into the decisions of the US about Taiwan’s defense needs and our commitments to Taiwan under our laws.”
Citing former US president Ronald Reagan’s 1982 pledge in his so-called “six assurances” that the US would not consult with China beforehand on arms sales to Taiwan, Ros-Lehtinen faulted the administration for talking to Beijing about the issue.
“As Congress has been kept in the dark on this issue, which is of vital concern to our national security interests, the Chinese leadership has been kept fully abreast of our nation’s intentions,” Ros-Lehtinen said.
The bill would require that the administration provide Congress with “detailed briefings” on a regular basis on any discussions that it has with Taiwan on the arms sales issue and on any “potential transfer” of weapons to Taiwan.
The briefings would enable Congress to take a more proactive position with the administration on the arms sales issue to help ensure that the sales go through, congressional staffers involved in shepherding the bill through the House say.
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