China's top arms control official yesterday warned the US against selling the sophisticated AEGIS weapons system to Taiwan or including the country in a regional missile defense system.
China is worried the AEGIS satellite anti-missile system might be plugged into larger US military systems and turn Taiwan into a quasi-alliance partner, said Sha Zukang (
"Of the arms they have proposed to sell to Taiwan, the AEGIS is the worst," Sha, who has 16 years of experience in arms controls talks, said at a briefing in Beijing. "It's a very, very serious issue."
Sha's warning came just weeks before annual US-Taiwan arms talks at which Taiwan is expected to unveil a shopping list of sophisticated weapons, including AEGIS-equipped destroyers.
AEGIS is a total weapons system that is centered around a powerful radar that can track more than 100 targets at a time and is capable of detecting and wiping out missiles, submarines, surface vessels and aircraft.
"Taiwan is part of China, and it's none of your business," Sha said. "Arms sales to a part of a country is wrong."
Sha's remarks came shortly after Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan (
Sha claimed that US arms sales violated communiques that the US and China signed in the 1970s and 1980s to reach a reasonable level of clarity on the Taiwan issue and enable Washington and Beijing to normalize relations.
In the third and last of the communiques, from August 1982, the US said its arms sales to Taiwan would not exceed those of recent years and that it would "reduce gradually its sales of arms to Taiwan, leading over a period of time to a final resolution."
"Those commitments are in black and white, and we expect them to commit to them," Sha said.
Sha also warned the US against including Taiwan in a Theater Missile Defense (TMD) system, the regional version of a national missile shield that the new US administration has said it will develop.
"Any transfer, in whatever form, disguised or not, or piece by piece, of TMD to Taiwan is a violation and an interference in internal affairs," he said.
Sha's comments come just days before Vice Premier Qian Qichen (
He said China welcomed US offers to talk about the anti-missile defense plans, although he could not confirm if Qian would raise the issue with his US hosts.
Sha said China was not opposed to TMD "per se" as a way to provide tactical defense for military units, but only if it ties into a larger national missile defense and constitutes its "front deployment."
He suggested there would be no room for a quid pro quo deal in which China agreed to reduce the number of missiles pointed towards Taiwan in return for concessions on TMD by the US.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary