Pentagon officials are worried that increasingly warm relations across the Taiwan Strait could give China new opportunities to spy on Taiwan’s US-made weapons systems.
“Quite properly and appropriately it’s an issue that is raising a lot of red flags right now,” said John Pike, head of the highly-respected Global Security military think tank in Washington.
“There is concern within the Pentagon. If this new era of closer-contact results in friendly military-to-military meetings, then obviously such meetings will increase the opportunity for espionage,” he said. “Taiwan has some sensitive US weapons and is in line to get more. There is a well-founded fear that the Chinese could learn things about those weapons that we don’t want them to know.”
Pike’s words were echoed within the Pentagon by officials who said the matter was “too sensitive” to allow their names to be used.
But one said that concern had increased last week when Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) called for military exchanges with Taiwan.
“The two sides can pick the right time to engage in exchanges on military issues and explore setting up a military and security mechanism to build mutual trust,” Hu said during a speech marking the 30th anniversary of Beijing’s “open letter to Taiwanese compatriots.”
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has also indicated that he wants to arrange military exchanges.
This potential conflict with the Pentagon comes as US president-elect Barack Obama has picked former congressman Leon Panetta — who served as chief of staff to former US president Bill Clinton — to run the CIA and retired US Navy admiral Dennis Blair to serve as director of National Intelligence.
Panetta has almost no direct intelligence experience and is expected to lean heavily on Blair, who is the former commander-in-chief of US Pacific Command and a former senior CIA official.
Blair is well informed on Taiwanese affairs and is understood to be very cautious about letting Chinese officials too close to US weapons systems in Taiwan.
It is unlikely, however, that the issue would be raised in diplomatic contacts or even classified intelligence meetings until after Obama formally takes over the White House on Jan. 20.
But Pentagon sources speaking strictly off the record said they would want detailed clarifications about any proposal for military cooperation between Taiwan and China.
It is an issue that will also be of concern to incoming vice president Joe Biden, former head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
When the proposal to sell Taiwan the advanced Aegis missile defense system was first being seriously considered, Biden said: “We should only sell that system if we think that it is needed by Taiwan and if it is in our interests.”
“If the Aegis is needed to keep our commitment to Taiwan, then we should sell it. I have an open mind about that,” he said.
After a long delay, in October Washington approved a US$6.5 billion arms package to Taiwan including Apache attack helicopters, Patriot missile batteries and other air defense systems.
But the US continues to ignore a separate request by Taiwan for 66 advanced F-16 fighter aircraft that some security analysts say Taiwan urgently needs to maintain a balance of air power over the Taiwan Strait.
More than anything, the Pentagon is determined to keep Chinese intelligence-gathering agencies and their spies away from the state-of-the-art Aegis system, the Patriot missile batteries and advanced F-16 fighter jets.
If the Pentagon’s top brass become seriously afraid that such technology could fall into Chinese hands as a result of sales to Taiwan, those sales could be canceled.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
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
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
RSS