After a break of more than seven months caused by arms sales to Taiwan, the US and China have agreed to reopen military-to-military contacts beginning with talks this month in Hawaii on maritime security.
This almost certainly means that a decision on Taipei’s request to buy 66 advanced F-16 fighter aircraft has been put on long-term hold, because Beijing has made it very clear that the proposed F-16 sale is a “red line” item and that it would be furious if it went ahead.
While senior officials in the administration of US President Barack Obama refused to discuss the sale in light of the reopened military-to-military talks, it is widely believed that China would immediately break them off again if the sale were approved.
After publicly putting the resumption of military contacts near the top of its agenda with China and investing significant diplomatic capital to reinstate them, the Obama administration will be highly reluctant to put the contacts at risk again.
At best, Washington will want to reestablish a strong new foundation for the talks — ensuring that both sides have a lot to lose in ending them — before deciding on the F-16 sale.
By then China may have reduced the huge missile force now targeting Taiwan and the Obama administration may be open to arguments that the F-16s are no longer needed for defensive purposes.
Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan announced the resumption of the military-to-military talks on Wednesday. He said the Hawaii meetings would take place on Oct. 14 and Oct. 15 and that China would send senior defense officials to Washington soon afterwards for talks with their Pentagon counterparts.
China’s delegation to Washington is expected to be led by Deputy Chief of the General Staff General Ma Xiaotian (馬嘯天). It is also expected that Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) will make a state visit to Washington early next year.
An agreement to reopen the military-to-military contacts was reached earlier this week in Beijing by Chinese officials, including Major General Qian Lihua (錢利華), and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia Michael Schiffer.
The contacts were broken off by China in January after the US announced plans to sell US$6.4 billion in weapons and military hardware to Taiwan.
“Both sides agreed that dialogue is essential to build mutual trust, and reduce the chances of misunderstanding and miscalculation,” Lapan said.
The dialogue, he said, was essential to developing “a broad, resilient bilateral relationship that is positive in tone, cooperative in nature and comprehensive in scope.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that a senior US defense official said Washington wanted to establish a framework “to help ensure that relations won’t be frozen every time Beijing gets upset at Washington, whether over the next Taiwan arms sale or over tensions in the South China Sea.”
Earlier this week, Texas Congressman Pete Sessions told Capitol Hill: “Taiwan is an important ally and trading partner, and we must continue to support its defense.”
“Taiwan faces a continuous threat from China and must be capable of defending itself in the event of an attack,” Sessions said.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
RESILIENCE: Taiwan plays a key role in semiconductors, energy, information infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, AIT Director Raymond Greene said Taiwan’s continued investment in deterrence and resilience remains vital, especially in uncrewed systems and other emerging technologies, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday. Greene made the remarks at the annual National Strategic Summit on Supply Chain Resilience held by the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET), a government-backed think tank. As Taiwan last year became the US’ fourth-largest trading partner and supply chain security is becoming more important, cooperation in emerging technologies continues to deepen between the two countries, he said. The US is committed to accelerating innovation, building key infrastructure, strengthening cooperation
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RSS