The US government has expressed disappointment over China’s decision to suspend some joint military activities in retaliation for Washington’s sale of nearly US$6.5 billion in advanced military equipment to Taiwan, reminding Beijing that the US has a legal obligation to supply Taiwan with the defensive weapons it needs.
“It’s an unfortunate decision that the Chinese have taken,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters on Tuesday.
“We’ve explained to them that what we’ve done is very much in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act in terms of selling defensive systems to the Taiwanese,” he told the department’s daily press briefing.
“The Chinese reaction is unfortunate and results in missed opportunities,” said Pentagon East Asian affairs spokesman, Marine Major Stewart Upton, adding that “there has been no change in US government policy, and we have faithfully carried out the provisions of the Taiwan Relations Act” to supply Taiwan with defensive weapons.
Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong (周文重) lodged a protest on Monday with US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns and informed him of the cancelation or postponement of several joint activities planned between now and next month.
While Wood would not give details, Upton said the activities include senior level visits and exchanges involving humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
Other reports say that China will also halt port calls by US naval vessels, and indefinitely postpone meetings on stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
It was not immediately known whether the action on port calls would be a repeat of last November’s last-minute decision by Beijing to cancel a Thanksgiving holiday visit to Hong Kong by the then Seventh Fleet aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, a decision that soured US-China relations for some months.
That action was in turn reportedly a response to the US decision to sell Taiwan nearly US$1 billion in advanced ground support equipment for its Patriot II anti-missile batteries, the predecessors to the US$3.1 billion in PAC-III batteries, which were the largest items in the Pentagon’s arms sales notification to Congress on Friday.
The PAC-IIIs are a core item in the US’ own missile defense network, whose development and deployment has long been a source of anger in Beijing, and more recently in Russia.
Sales of such items by the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency imply a degree of military-to-military cooperation and interoperability between the US and the receiving nation.
While it is not clear if the sale would imply any such cooperation in missile defense between US and Taiwanese forces, the main aim is to enhance Taiwan’s ability to resist an attack by the more than 1,000 Chinese missiles aimed at Taiwan, something which the PAC-IIs would be less effective in doing.
In his comments on the arms sales and the Chinese reaction, Upton said the US “look[s] forward to resuming our mil-mil [military-to-military] exchanges with China,” but warned China over its military buildup and lack of transparency.
“Uncertainty over the motivations and direction of China’s military expansion leads others to hedge. This could lead to a security environment less favorable to China’s interests, the region’s and our own,” he said.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Tuesday welcomed the arms sales decision, saying that the weapons package “has been on hold for too long” and praising the Bush administration for “taking a step in the right direction.”
“I have long supported such sales in order to strengthen deterrence in the Taiwan Strait and to help preserve the peace,” McCain said. “American interests in Asia are well-served through faithful implementation of the Taiwan Relations Act.”
If elected, “I will continue the longstanding and close ties between our peoples,” he said.
But in a statement issued seven days after the US officially announced the sale through a notification to Congress, McCain also expressed concern that the package did not include diesel-electric submarines or advanced F-16 fighter aircraft requested by Taipei.
“I urge the administration to reconsider this decision, in light of its previous commitment to provide submarines and America’s previous sales of F-16s,” he said.
Saying that the US should promote the improvement of cross-strait relations, McCain said that “the possibility of productive times between Taiwan and China are enhanced, not diminished, when Taipei speaks from a position of strength.”
“I believe that America should continue to sell defensive weapons to Taiwan in the future ... and stand by this remarkable free and democratic people,” he said.
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