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US says arms sales to Taiwan won't change relations

Announcements by the US Pentagon over the past week of weapons sales to Taiwan totaling nearly US$340 million had no particular political importance to the US position on cross-strait relations, a senior US official has said.

The sales appeared to take on added significance in the wake of the crucial APEC leaders' meeting in Shanghai, where Taiwan was involved in a row with Beijing over who would be permitted to represent President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) at the meeting.

"The sales represent the way the long, convoluted process of US overseas arms sales go through the US bureaucratic process rather than the timing of the latest announcements," said James Kelly, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs.

Kelly made the comment in response to a question after a speech on US Asian policy at the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation in Washington on Thursday.

"Its an indication of how our legal and bureaucratic system enables us to receive maximum attention for minimum activity," he said.

Kelly was commenting on a pair of announcements over the past week by the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which handles foreign arms sales, of a US$51 million planned sale of Javelin anti-tank missile systems and a US$288 million planned sale of spare parts for US-supplied F-5, C-130 and F-16, plus Indigenous Defense Fighter aircraft to Taiwan.

"The US policy on Taiwan remains unchanged," Kelly said.

He noted that the process by which Washington sells arms to Taiwan goes through public scrutiny as many as a half-dozen times from the time the sale is agreed to, to the time when the items are actually delivered.

"I am not able to place particular importance on those Pentagon announcements," he said last week.

Kelly said that no progress was made on cross-strait relations during last month's meeting between Presidents George W. Bush and Jiang Zemin (江澤民) on the fringes of the APEC meeting in Shanghai.

"We have strong difference with the PRC over non-proliferation issues, over Taiwan, over human rights and freedom of religion, and I wouldn't say that progress was made on any of those issues," he said.

Overall, Kelly said, there will likely not be much progress on cross-strait relations "for a very long time." He noted the changes that will result from the impending admission of China and Taiwan to the WTO, Taiwan's upcoming legislative elections and next year's 16th Party Congress in Beijing.

"The political process on both sides is an obstacle to rapid progress," he said. He reiterated the long-standing US policy of keeping out of efforts to settle cross-strait issues.

"It seems to me that the US has a powerful interest in arguing for the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues. One of the best ways we can do that is to not insert ourselves in the middle of that process," he said.

Kelly said he was not aware of a congressional invitation to Chen to visit Washington.

Taiwan-born Oregon Repre-sentative David Wu last week invited Chen to visit during a telephone conversation about the controversy over Taiwan's attendance at the APEC meeting and Chen accepted, according to Wu's office.
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