A senior Bush administration official on Wednesday registered Washington's opposition to Taiwan's development of offensive missiles that could hit Chinese targets, but again urged the Legislative Yuan to approve a defense budget including the weapons systems offered by US President George W. Bush when he took office in 2001.
Senior director for East Asian affairs at the National Security Council Dennis Wilder said that any offensive capability on either side of the Taiwan Strait is "destabilizing and therefore not in the interest of peace and security."
Wilder made the comments in answer to a question about the Ministry of Defense's announcement last week that it had simulated a battle using short-range and cruise missiles that could hit military targets inside China. While the ministry described the missiles, which are still in the conceptual stage, as defensive, some observers consider them offensive weapons systems.
The issue came up at a press briefing on this week's summit between Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Washington, which will include a discussion about Taiwan.
"When you ask me whether I'm for offensive missiles, I'm not for offensive missiles on the Chinese side of the Strait, and not for offensive missiles on the Taiwan side of the Strait," Wilder said.
Abe arrives
Abe was slated to arrive in Washington yesterday, joining Bush at a "small informal dinner in the private quarters of the White House" that evening.
Today, the two leaders are scheduled to travel to the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, for a morning of discussions, press briefings and lunch.
It is Abe's first visit to Washington since his election last year.
The situation in the Taiwan Strait and China's military buildup against Taiwan would be one issue that would figure in the talks, Wilder said.
"Because of the large Chinese military buildup opposite Taiwan, and their deployment of a lot of missiles, their deployment of a lot of sophisticated technologies, we all have a concern that some in Beijing may at some point be tempted to coercion," he said.
Japan and the US share a common goal, to "persuade Beijing from ever being tempted down that path.
Therefore, we both seek to engage the Chinese in a way that keeps the Chinese on the path of diplomacy in their relations with Taiwan, that keeps the Chinese looking at positive ways to interact with Taiwan, and not negative ways," he said, noting that Washington also has urged Chinese leaders to talk directly with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his government.
"I think the Japanese share that feeling. Therefore I'm sure that the topic of Taiwan and its future is always a part of our discussions with the Japanese, because as like-minded democracies we see democratic development on Taiwan as a positive thing, and we want to help them keep that democracy vibrant and alive," he said.
Arms bill deadlock
Regarding the arms bill now bottled up in the Legislative Yuan, Wilder said the US wants the legislature to move ahead with it.
"We think that given the situation today across the Strait, that the people of Taiwan need to make a serious and sustained commitment to their defense needs. Therefore, we would hope that there would be, across party lines, in Taiwan a decision to move forward on increasing defense spending that would allow them to boost capacity," Wilder said.
"We think that developing defensive capabilities is the right thing to do," he said.
Also see story:
Bush hosts Japan's Abe for talks on North Korea
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods