An editorial in the People’s Daily yesterday adopted unusually bellicose language to “warn” Washington against selling advanced weapons to Taiwan, pointing to the “disastrous price” that would be paid if Washington proceeds with the sale.
“At present, some madmen on Capitol Hill are making an uproar about consolidating and expanding this cancer,” the paper said, referring to the Taiwan Relations Act, which requires the US to sell Taiwan the military equipment it needs for its self-defense.
Calling US politicians who support continued arms sales to Taiwan “wildly arrogant,” the editorial said Sino-US relations would find themselves in a predicament if the sale were allowed to proceed.
US Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, has been one of the main proponents of the sale of the 66 F-16C/Ds, which Taipei has been requesting from the US since 2007 and which is the main focus of Beijing’s warnings.
In April, US Senator Richard Lugar, top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to US Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton urging the Obama administration to make the F-16C/Ds available to Taiwan.
The letter warns that a failure to do so would leave its ally with “no credible air-to-air capability.”
Forty-five senators, led by US Senate Taiwan Caucus co-chairs Robert Menendez and James Inhofe, and 181 members of the US House of Representatives have signed letters calling on US President Barack Obama’s administration to release the F-16s to Taiwan.
The Obama administration is expected to announce its final decision on the sale on Oct. 1, which coincides with national day in the People’s Republic of China.
Beijing has long said that the sale of F-16C/Ds was a “red line” that should not be crossed, warning that it would severely undermine relations between Beijing and Washington.
“Some people want to turn back the tide of history, but they must be clear about the disastrous price they will have to pay,” the editorial said.
“A word of advice for those muddleheaded congressmen: Don’t go too far, don’t play with fire,” it said.
The editorial was signed “Zhong Sheng,” or “voice of China,” which has been used in the past to reflect the views of the senior party leadership.
Additional reporting by Reuters
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do