A major US newspaper is reporting that despite representatives of both parties in the US Congress pushing US President Barack Obama to sell F-16C/D aircraft to Taiwan, only the upgrading of older models “looks likely.”
“The Obama administration isn’t budging,” the Wall Street Journal said in an editorial.
The daily said that although the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) requires Washington to sell the arms Taiwan needs to defend itself, “Beijing has succeeded in intimidating successive administrations into deferring those sales.”
Under the headline “Unkept Promises to Taiwan” and the subhead “The US is rewarding Beijing’s tantrums over arms sales,” the Wall Street Journal said lawmakers were now pushing to upgrade the TRA.
The paper said the push had “little chance of passing,” but that it could serve a useful purpose by “putting the spotlight on America’s failure to live up to its promises.”
“The problem is not just China’s increasingly advanced and numerous fighters, but also its nearly 2,000 ballistic missiles that could hit Taiwanese airfields,” it said. “The Chinese will no doubt complain loudly about any proposed change to the TRA, just as they do when even modest arms sales to Taiwan are approved.”
“Beijing has suspended military-to-military ties with the US twice in the last three years over such sales. But it is the US that encourages such histrionics by reinforcing the impression that it will eventually allow the abandonment of Taiwan to become a fait accompli,” the paper said.
A better strategy, the newspaper said, would be to set a long-term objective for returning Taiwan to a viable position of being able to defend itself, so that it could negotiate with China from a position of strength.
“This would require reaching a bipartisan consensus on a program of future sales that would come into effect as long as China’s offensive buildup continues,” it said.
“Future administrations could then minimize the politicking by hewing to this program,” it said.
The newspaper said that once Beijing was conditioned to understand that its threats to hold the entire bilateral relationship hostage to this one issue were no longer working, “the outbursts would subside.”
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Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
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