The US State Department on Thursday refused to concede that the administration of US President George W. Bush has imposed a freeze on arms sales to Taiwan, despite confirmation by the top commander of US forces in the Pacific, Admiral Timothy Keating, that the freeze is “administration policy,” and the fact that for the first time in history, the administration has not announced any planned sales to Taiwan this year.
The US “faithfully implements the Taiwan Relations Act,” is all a State Department official would say.
The act requires the US to supply Taiwan with sufficient weapons systems to fend off a Chinese attack. It also requires that the decision be based solely on Taiwan’s needs, not politics or US foreign policy considerations.
Many critics of the administration’s freeze have said that its actions violate that law’s requirements.
The State Department official refused to be identified because the Bush administration forbids department officials to be quoted because of its policy of secrecy toward Taiwan issues.
The official refused to comment on Keating’s revelation.
“I cannot comment specifically on Admiral Keating’s remarks,” she told the Taipei Times.
Meanwhile, reaction in Washington to Keating’s confirmation that the freeze exists centered on criticism of Bush and his administration for denying Taiwan the weapons it needs to defend itself from attack by China.
John Tkacik, a senior fellow and Taiwan expert at the Heritage Foundation, which hosted Keating when he made his remarks, called the freeze a “tragedy.”
“It is a demonstration of China’s growing power in Asia, and it will serve as a signal to many in the region that America’s influence is destined to wane,” he said.
“The Bush administration is, in effect, telling democratic Taiwan that it can expect no material, or even moral support from the United States as Taiwan attempts to negotiate a new relationship with communist China,” he said.
Tkacik, a long-time supporter of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in their drive for Taiwanese independence, supported President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in the current US-Taiwan arms standoff.
Ma, he said, “has pledged to improve Taiwan’s relations with China, but even he understands that to deal with Beijing, he must be in a position to negotiate from strength. That strength means that Taiwan must have a credible military force and must have a solid security relationship with the United States,” Tkacik said.
Defending the State Department’s position, a department spokesman would say only that “there is an internal interagency process for the US government to consider all military exports, including sales to Taiwan. When the interagency process achieves the final decision for any specific arms sales, we do notify Congress.”
“We don’t comment on specific weapons systems under consideration, but we faithfully carry out the provisions of the Taiwan Relations Act,” the department official said.
In related news, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday called on the US government to resume arms sales to Taiwan as the nation needs the weapons to enhance its national security and to build a sound defensive capability to use as leverage in negotiations with Beijing.
A combination of factors, including the easing of cross-strait relations, disagreements on the arms deal between US officials and the approaching US presidential election may have contributed to freeze, Wang said, adding that he wished the US could sort out whatever the problem was.
He said he would tell US officials clearly that Taiwan was serious about investing in its defense when he leaves for the US for a visit at the invitation of the Heritage Foundation next week.
A legislative source with knowledge of the matter said that National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi (蘇起) had recently briefed Wang on Ma’s position on the arms sales.
The source said Ma hoped the US could lift its freeze on sales to Taiwan.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) said the US had decided to put off approving arms sales to Taiwan because it needed China’s cooperation on many important global issues.
KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) blamed the DPP for the suspension of US arms sales, saying the US’ willingness to sell weapons to Taiwan was more or less influenced by the continuous rumors created by the DPP that the KMT had no intention of making the purchase.
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