A major US congressional committee has adopted an amendment to a budget bill urging US President Barack Obama to sell advanced F-16C/D aircraft and diesel-electric submarines to Taiwan.
The amendment came shortly before US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that Obama would make a decision by Oct. 1 on whether he would sell the fighters.
Over the past few months, the US Congress has made it very clear to the Obama administration that it is in favor of selling arms to Taiwan. In the latest move, Democratic US representatives Gerry Connolly and Howard Berman proposed the F-16C/D amendment, while -Republican US Representative Dan Burton added to it the proposed sale of diesel-electric submarines.
The amendment was approved by voice vote in the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
“The president should take immediate steps to sell to Taiwan all the F-16 fighter jets that are needed by Taiwan, including new F-16C/D aircraft and upgrades to the existing F-16A/B fleet,” it says.
The amendment adds that the diesel-electric submarines offered to Taiwan by the US in 2001 should also be sold to Taiwan once Taipei has budgeted for them.
Taiwan’s supporters in the US were “thrilled” by the amendment and felt that it would bring real pressure to bear on the White House to go ahead with the arms sale, even though it was certain to damage US relations with China.
However, the euphoria was short lived and soon dampened by the Clinton announcement and the implications of its timing.
The amendment says that the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) states that “the US will make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability.”
It adds that a US Department of Defense report on the military power of Beijing last year stated that “China’s military buildup opposite Taiwan continued unabated” and that China “is developing the capability to deter Taiwan independence, or influence Taiwan to settle the dispute on Beijing’s terms.”
The amendment says that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) asked the US in a video address on May 12 last year to provide Taiwan with the necessary weapons to keep its aerial integrity intact.
“The US, in accordance with the TRA, should continue to make available to Taiwan such defense articles and services as may be necessary for Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability,” the amendment says.
It has been added to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for next year, which in effect provides the budget for the US Department of State.
US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican who chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, is trying to cut US$6.4 billion from Obama’s budget request for the US Department of State.
“My legislation protects and advances our national security interests and priorities, while rejecting the notion that it takes more government and more spending to do so,” she said.
The Washington Times reported this week that Evan Medeiros, the National Security Council specialist dealing with Taiwan, was being blamed by congressional and Pentagon sources “for preventing the US sales of 66 advanced F-16 jets to Taiwan that is expected to anger Beijing and for holding up a new sale of equipment to upgrade Taiwan’s existing F-16s.”
“The sources say he has used bureaucratic delaying tactics to block the release of a second Pentagon report to Congress on the shifting air power balance in the Taiwan Strait,” it added.
Asked to comment on the report, Rick Fisher, a senior fellow in Asian military affairs with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said: “It is a matter of obvious public record that the Obama administration has refused to move on Taiwan’s request for new F-16s. It has not released the congressionally mandated Department of Defense reports on the Taiwan Strait air power balance or the 2011 China military power report and did not send an aircraft carrier task group into the Yellow Sea as a response to undeniable North Korean aggression in 2010. History will show that these decisions did not mollify China’s aggressive quest for power and did not reduce China’s military buildup against democratic Taiwan, but did contribute to a then-gathering impression of freedom’s decline as America retreated from an increasingly powerful Chinese dictatorship.”
MISINFORMATION: The generated content tends to adopt China’s official stance, such as ‘Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese central government,’ the NSB said Five China-developed artificial intelligence (AI) language models exhibit cybersecurity risks and content biases, an inspection conducted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The five AI tools are: DeepSeek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問) and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶), the bureau said, advising people to remain vigilant to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets. The NSB said it, in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), has reviewed international cybersecurity reports and intelligence, and coordinated with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to conduct an inspection of China-made AI language
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
CHECKING BOUNDARIES: China wants to disrupt solidarity among democracies and test their red lines, but it is instead pushing nations to become more united, an expert said The US Department of State on Friday expressed deep concern over a Chinese public security agency’s investigation into Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) for “secession.” “China’s actions threaten free speech and erode norms that have underpinned the cross-strait ‘status quo’ for decades,” a US Department of State spokesperson said. The Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau late last month listed Shen as “wanted” and launched an investigation into alleged “secession-related” criminal activities, including his founding of the Kuma Academy, a civil defense organization that prepares people for an invasion by China. The spokesperson said that the US was “deeply concerned” about the bureau investigating Shen
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
RSS