Members of the US Congress are again pushing US President Barack Obama to put the sale of F-16C/D aircraft to Taiwan back on the front political burner.
The move comes as Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平) completed a highly publicized visit to the US and as Obama’s re--election campaign gets underway.
The US president is under attack from opposition Republicans for not being tough enough on China and for failing to create enough new jobs in the current moribund economy.
Leading US Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has accused Obama of kowtowing to Xi and of failing to look after US economic interests.
In a move that was widely interpreted as backing down to pressure from Beijing, Obama refused to sell 66 F-16C/Ds to Taiwan in September last year and agreed only to update the nation’s aging F-16A/B fleet.
Under heavy congressional pressure, White House aides said the future sale of F-16C/Ds to Taiwan had not been ruled out and was still under consideration.
Against this background, Republican US Senator John Cornyn announced on Friday that he was putting on hold the nomination of Mark Lippert as assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security affairs until the Obama administration comes up with a plan to address what he called “Taiwan’s looming fighter shortfall.”
Cornyn is strongly in favor of selling the advanced F-16s to -Taiwan, in part because they are built in Fort Worth, Texas, and the order would preserve hundreds of jobs in his home state.
The hold on Lippert’s nomination will be embarrassing for the White House and US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Jim Miller has quickly responded to Cornyn’s action by saying that the F-16 upgrade package offered to Taiwan “effectively meets Taiwan’s current needs.”
Cornyn is expected to reject that argument this week and begin gathering support in the Senate.
At the same time, Republican US Representative Kenny Marchant, also from Texas, has introduced a statement into the Congressional Record saying: “It is important that the F-16 deal for Taiwan not be further delayed.”
He said that without the Taiwan order the F-16 production line would soon close, badly damaging the North Texas economy.
Formosan Association for Public Affairs president Mark Kao (高龍榮) said that while the sale of the F-16s was tabled last year, Congress and the general public needed to be reminded that the military imbalance in the Taiwan Strait had grown significantly worse amid a continued Chinese military buildup.
“There is an urgent need to counteract this worrying trend,” Kao said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS