Despite a private meeting in Taipei with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), US Democratic Senator Arlen Specter is not supporting Taiwan’s request to buy advanced F-16C/D fighter planes.
Ma’s efforts to convince Specter on the need for the aircraft would appear to have failed.
In a report to the US Senate, just published in the Congressional Record, Specter says: “It appears to me that we might consider revising our policy on the sale of arms to Taiwan where we have an irritant to mainland China that doesn’t really accomplish very much.”
“We recently have sold Taiwan some US$4.6 billion worth, which is very substantial, but if the People’s Republic of China decided to invade Taiwan, the defenses they have and their request for additional fighter planes, which has not been granted — all of that would not be sufficient to stem the tide.”
Specter met with Ma on Aug. 13 when the president argued that Taiwan needed the fighters to prevent the balance of military power across the Taiwan Strait from shifting further in China’s favor.
According to reports, Ma said the purpose of procuring the F-16s was not to provoke war but to beef up defense capability. Ma tried to persuade Specter to support Taiwan’s fighter request.
At a later meeting with US Senator Roland Burris, an Illinois Democrat, Ma said: “Our American friends can rest assured that the aircraft would be only for defense purposes and national security.”
However, in his report to Congress, Specter says: “Although the President of Taiwan was very interested in having arms sold by the United States, I pressed him on whether it was realistic, really a measure that they could defend themselves, or whether it was symbolic. I did that in the discussions with other officials in Taiwan.”
He said in his report that during a meeting with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) on Aug. 16, he asked about the importance of F-16 sales to Taiwan and their “real benefit to any cross-strait conflict.”
Specter added: “I was informed that the sales are both substantive and symbolic in showing backing for Taiwan and aiding in any future cross-strait negotiations and talks. Further, Taiwan has a duty to its people to provide defense of the island.”
However, both Ma and Wang appear to have had little impact.
Specter’s report will not be welcomed by the US-Taiwan Business Council, which announced this week that it would hold the ninth annual US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5 in Cambridge, Maryland.
The council is a strong supporter of the F-16 sale and its conference focuses on US-Taiwan defense and military cooperation.
This year it will examine the future cross-strait threat, the Taiwanese military’s new focus on disaster rescue and relief, and asymmetric options for Taiwan’s armed forces.
“The Conference is the most important private event reviewing US-Taiwan defense and security issues each year,” council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers said.
Wallace Gregson, assistant secretary of defense for Asia and Pacific security affairs, and Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, will deliver keynote speeches at the conference, a statement released by the council said, adding that a senior Taiwanese defense official will also speak.
In line with Ministry of National Defense protocol, the Taiwanese official was not named.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the