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US vet wraps up fact-finding tour of Asian allies

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee, center, and Vice Minister of National Defense Chen Bi-chao, right, last night held a dinner party in Taipei to welcome US Representative Floyd D. Spence, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES

Taipei Times: What's the main purpose of your pan-Asia trip?

Floyd D. Spence: We went to South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and now here. Our committee travels three or four times a year to various places in the world, checking with our friends and allies to see if we've got all kinds of necessary military arrangements with these Asian countries. So we just tried to see what's going on and let them know how much we appreciate their friendship.

TT: Up to now, what have you discovered on your trip around the region?

Spence: I don't know about discovery. We knew a whole lot about what was going on anyway. For instance, I was in Singapore where they are building a pier now so that our carriers could come in to that place. And before that we were in the Philippines, and that didn't work out. So the Singaporeans stepped in, and were willing to back us with facilities. They don't call them bases. They call them places. Nevertheless, a lot of logistics has to come through them in the strategic place.

And in [South] Korea we've still got our troops there and we were checking how they were doing. Last time we had the Thanksgiving Day along with the troops in Korea. We appreciated what they are doing. A lot of them haven't seen any congressman before from our committee, and we ensured them that we tried to do the best we could to support them. That's the main purpose of our trip there. We met our commander there to see what new developments we need to know about, although they are classified and I couldn't talk about them.

TT: What's your main purpose in visiting Taiwan?

Spence: Well ... just to reassure the people here of my support for this country. I've been here four or five times. And during the first time [in 1971] I met Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) here. I came here and spoke to the World Anti-Communist League then.

TT: Back in July you mentioned how China's growing military capabilities has threatened the US national interest, given China's possession of the largest military in the world, that its military spending has increased at a double-digit pace and its acquisition of sophisticated hardware from countries like Russia. Could you further elaborate on this issue?

Spence: I am indeed concerned. Because I read in the new releases from China what their military leaders are saying, and recently they have been very open about the fact that the next war they would have would be with us. For a long time, I've been advocating to get people in this part of the world ... because we stand in the way of their expansion activities especially relative to Taiwan. They can't be in too much favor of us being here and being supportive of Taiwan like we are.

TT: You also mentioned in July that China's military threat to Taiwan should be taken seriously by the US. Given the current standoff between China and Taiwan, what's your evaluation of China's current threat to Taiwan?

Spence: I think the Chinese look at things from a long-term view. I don't know if they are thinking about invading this country in the near future. But in the long range, they want to get Taiwan back and reach some kind of accommodation. I don't think they are prepared to do it right now, especially with us being involved in the Taiwan Strait like a few years ago. They still want to do what they call "reunify" with Taiwan, and obviously people in Taiwan don't want to do it on their terms. That's my understanding as of now.

TT: Given the current standoff between Taiwan and China, to what extent do you think the US factor can help break the ice between Taiwan and China?

Spence: We've had the new engagement policy towards the mainland Chinese, and we still are committed to the Taiwan Relations Act.

And I don't see that changing. As long as that doesn't change, I don't think the engagement initiatives of this administration [under Bill Clinton] -- who knows what the next administration would do in that respect -- in terms of trade relations with China would affect our relations with Taiwan.
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