Contacts with China’s military would likely be the first to suffer if Beijing moves to retaliate over upcoming US arms sales to Taiwan — the latest in a flurry of disputes elevating tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) warned that the Obama administration risked damaging ties with China if it proceeds with an arms package deal, which is likely to include Black Hawk helicopters and Patriot missiles.
“Once again, we urge the US side to recognize the sensitivity of weapon sales to Taiwan and its gravity,” Ma told reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference on Tuesday.
PHOTO: SAM YEH, AFP
He said failure to halt the sales would “impair the larger interests of China-US cooperation.”
Ma’s comments were echoed yesterday by the China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
“Our stance of opposing arms sales to Taiwan by any country is consistent and clear,” office spokesman Yang Yi (楊毅) said. “We feel that advancing the peaceful development of cross-strait relations is the only real way to benefit Taiwan’s peace and stability.”
Weapons sales to Taiwan is one of a string of sensitive issues roiling ties between China and the US that have prompted pointed responses from Beijing.
In 2008, China suspended most military dialogue with Washington after the Bush administration approved a US$6.5 billion arms package to Taiwan that included guided missiles and attack helicopters.
China’s Defense Ministry warned in a statement earlier this month that arms sales “seriously damaged mutual trust between the militaries of China and the US and create a major obstacle to improving and developing US-China military relations.
The ministry said it “reserved the right to take further action,” but gave no specifics.
Among upcoming exchanges that could suffer: General Chen Bingde (陳炳德), chief of the general staff, is scheduled to visit the US, while US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, are planning to visit China.
Washington has sought to raise the profile and frequency of such visits, using them as the basis for expanded cooperation in practical areas such as joint rescue drills. The Pentagon also hopes to build trust with Beijing to convince the Communist government to reveal more about the aims of its massive military buildup.
Also potentially at risk are a planned exchange of visits this year by the heads of NASA and China’s national space program and a hoped-for revival of a bilateral dialogue on human rights.
RIGHTS TALKS
Meanwhile, China and the US’ on-off dialogue on human rights faces postponement again amid discord between the two powers over Internet censorship.
Talks were meant to take place last year, but a date was never set.
The two countries agreed in November, during US President Barack Obama’s visit to China, that they would resume discussions by the end of next month at the latest. This now looks unlikely and it is thought the US is suggesting dates in late March.
“We are still continuing to work with the Chinese to schedule,” a US State Department official said. “Human rights dialogue is a priority for the US.”
Although critics complain the dialogue has achieved little, advocates say it is an opportunity to raise important issues and individual cases of concern directly.
Some observers believe US officials could be tarrying, fearing that if they do not get a substantive agenda for the talks China could say it is engaging on human rights — but the US could get little in return.
Human rights groups are concerned about last year’s crackdown on lawyers in China, Internet censorship (which was recently highlighted by the Google case) and the long sentence given to the dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波).
The last human rights meeting, in May 2008, followed a four-year hiatus. Beijing announced it was suspending participation in 2004 after the US sponsored a resolution at the UN human rights commission condemning China’s record.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique