Several members of the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee have been talking about possibly visiting Taiwan to exchange views with the nation's opposition lawmakers on the long-stalled special arms procurement bill.
The Bush administration has offered to sell eight diesel-electric submarines, six Patriot PAC III anti-missile batteries and a squadron of 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft to Taiwan to beef up its defense capabilities.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee are scheduled to embark on an Asian tour next month, and some have suggested detouring to Taiwan for talks with legislators to push for passage of the arms procurement bill in the new session of the Legislative Yuan which is set to open early next month.
Most of the committee members have expressed high expectations about Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who officially took over the chairmanship of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday, being able to improve interaction between the opposition parties and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), thereby facilitating passage of the arms bill.
The bill's prospects seem to have improved recently with legislators from both sides moving closer on the issue by suggesting that some of the items in the arms procurement package could be listed in the military's regular annual budget instead of being financed by a special budget.
As to making a stop in Taiwan, several of the members of the US House Armed Services Committee have said that they feel it has become necessary, particularly following the recent release by the Pentagon of its latest report on China's military.
In the report issued on July 19, the US Defense Department stated that "the cross-strait balance of power is shifting towards Beijing ... Chinese air, naval and missile force modernization is increasing demands on Taiwan to develop countermeasures that would enable it to avoid being quickly overwhelmed."
The congressmen said that China's deployment of hundreds of ballistic missiles directed toward Taiwan is threatening the security and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
There have been rumblings of impatience and dissatisfaction on Capitol Hill recently that Taiwan lawmakers are using the arms procurement bill as a political power-struggle tool. Some have expressed doubts about whether the US should be committed to Taiwan's defense when the nation itself doesn't seem committed to the task.
Some China hands in Washington have also said that in the face of the increasing military imbalance across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan should at least be equipped with proper defense capabilities to allow it to stave off an attack until outside help arrives.
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