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.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS