White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday that China’s threat to impose sanctions on US companies manufacturing weapons systems for sale to Taiwan was “not warranted.”
Analysts said the unusually blunt reaction from Gibbs reflected a new policy by US President Barack Obama to “push back” against what is seen as overly antagonistic actions by Beijing whenever the US does something it doesn’t like.
China yesterday warned the US that their cooperation on international and regional issues could suffer over Washington’s decision to sell arms to Taiwan.
Beijing also urged US firms selling arms to Taipei to back away from the multibillion-dollar deal, after warning that those companies could face Chinese sanctions.
“China-US relations, in important international and regional issues, will inevitably be influenced and the responsibility completely lies with the US,” foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) told reporters.
“We strongly urge relevant US companies to stop pushing forward and taking part in the arms sales to Taiwan,” Ma said.
Bruce Lemkin, a deputy undersecretary with the US Air Force, said China shouldn’t have been surprised by the arms sale and called on Beijing to continue talks with Taiwan to help reduce tensions.
Asked by reporters at the Singapore Airshow if China had overreacted, Lemkin said: “Personally I think so, because it does not contribute to a positive or collaborative atmosphere. I think it’s unfortunate that China has reacted the way it has.”
The US has approved a package of Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and other military hardware totaling US$6.4 billion for Taiwan.
China, which has always strongly opposed US sales to Taiwan, reacted angrily to the news, cutting off military and security contacts with Washington, and threatening to impose sanctions on the firms involved in the transaction.
Raytheon Co and Lockheed Martin Corp were awarded a US$2.81 billion contract as part of the deal to produce the Patriot system, which is meant to defend against incoming missiles.
Neither defense company has major operations in China, which has been under a US and EU arms embargo since its bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1989.
But Boeing — whose McDonnell Douglas unit was awarded a US$37 million contract for 12 Harpoon tester missiles to Taiwan — is an aerospace giant that counts China as one of its largest markets.
United Technologies unit Sikorsky Aircraft is supplying Black Hawk helicopters to Taiwan
The New York Times reported on Sunday that administration officials were saying in private that the timing of last week’s arms sales to Taiwan and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s sharp criticism of China for not taking a stronger position on holding Iran accountable for its nuclear program were “calculated to send a message to Beijing.”
A senior administration official was quoted by the New York Times as saying: “This was a case of making sure that there was no misunderstanding that we will act in our own national security interests.”
Following Gibbs’ statement on Monday, two Democratic Party political analysts told the Taipei Times that the statement was part of the same decision to counter what is seen in Washington as China going too far in the way it has reacted.
During the regular White House briefing, Gibbs was asked if the administration was concerned about China’s reaction to Obama’s decision to sell arms to Taiwan.
He said: “We discussed each and every aspect of our relationship with China when we met in China in November, including arms sales to Taiwan. We have always said that we want the type of relationship where we’re working together on important issues of mutual concern — the global economic recovery, our concerns about proliferation. But when we have disagreements, we’ll voice those disagreements out in the open, in public.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday the arms sale was to meet US obligations to ensure security for Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region, not to help President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
DPP spokesman Chuang Shuo-han (莊碩漢) quoted a remark from People’s Liberation Army Rear Admiral Yang Yi (楊毅) saying that to improve his low approval rate, Ma had shown Taiwanese and the DPP that he enjoyed a good relationship with the US by pushing for the arms sale.
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
SECURITY: Grassroots civil servants would only need to disclose their travel, while those who have access to classified information would be subject to stricter regulations The government is considering requiring legislators and elected officials to obtain prior approval before traveling to China to prevent Chinese infiltration, an official familiar with national security said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) in March announced 17 measures to counter China’s growing infiltration efforts, including requiring all civil servants to make trips to China more transparent so they can be held publicly accountable. The official said that the government is considering amending the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) to require all civil servants to follow strict regulations before traveling to China.
‘MISGUIDED EDICT’: Two US representatives warned that Somalia’s passport move could result in severe retaliatory consequences and urged it to reverse its decision Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has ordered that a special project be launched to counter China’s “legal warfare” distorting UN Resolution 2758, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday cited UN Resolution 2758 and Mogadishu’s compliance with the “one China” principle as it banned people from entering or transiting in the African nation using Taiwanese passports or other Taiwanese travel documents. The International Air Transport Association’s system shows that Taiwanese passport holders cannot enter Somalia or transit there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested the move and warned Taiwanese against traveling to Somalia or Somaliland
RSS