US may pressure Taiwan for missile efforts: report

The US is troubled by Taiwan's efforts to build missiles to defend itself against a Chinese attack and may pressure Taipei to cancel indigenous missile programs, according to a report in the latest edition of the US-based Defense News weekly.

The report cites Richard Fisher, vice president of the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a Washington-based think tank, in claiming that the Bush administration is quietly opposing Taiwan's efforts to develop long-range missile technology.

In response, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense Spokesman Wu Chi-fang (吳季方) yesterday was quoted in a CNA story as saying that the ministry had no comment about the report, in keeping with its past attitude toward all defense reports.

According to the article in the US-based weekly, other high-level analysts believe Taiwan's missile programs might stoke cross-strait tensions, triggering a conflict that Taiwan would likely lose without help from the US.

Richard Bush, a former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman and director, is also quoted in the article as saying that "Taipei's decision to acquire offensive weapons would make it easier for China to take provocative or even hostile measures."

The report said that Taiwan first publicly acknowledged its efforts to build long-range ballistic missiles in May last year, when Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) admitted to legislators that the military's Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology had been seeking to develop offensive missiles that could strike China.

"Here you have the US complaining that Taiwan doesn't take its defense seriously, isn't buying the necessary weapons. On the other hand, the US is squashing Taiwan's efforts to develop its own defenses," Wendell Minnick, Defense News Asia bureau chief told the Taipei Times.

The Defense News article is the latest in a series of reports that the US may be undermining Taiwan's efforts to build up its military.

In February, Jane's Defence Weekly and Defense News, as well other media outlets, reported that the US may have tried to sabotage its latest arms procurement deal with Taiwan. The Jane's Defence Weekly report suggested the US Navy feared that if US shipyards began churning out relatively cheap, conventionally-powered submarines for Taiwan, US Congress would want to continue producing them for the US instead of the more expensive nuclear-powered submarines.

Hence, the US Navy has been discouraging Taiwan from buying the submarines included in the arms procurement deal by demanding inflated prices and stalling on the design of the subs, the reports said.