Sunday, October 29, 2006

Taiwan Matters: Arms Purchase Stuff

Again, if you haven't read Feiren's excellent post yesterday on AIT Chairman Steve Young's blunt criticism of Blue obstructionism on the arms purchase over at Taiwan Matters, you need to. Feiren writes:

Crystal clear. End of strategic ambiguity. Finally someone in the US administration who understands that what we need is clarity, not obfuscation. Tellingly, Ma Ying-jeou complained that Young would have advanced his cause if he had been more 'wan3zhuan3' or indirect. Bullshit. The Taiwanese people need to hear what their security partner thinks directly without the mediation of paternal nationalists like Ma.

And just in case Ma was not listening carefully:

The United States is watching closely and will judge those who take responsible positions on this as well as those who play politics. Because fundamentally, this moment and this opportunity could pass and be missed by Taiwan if it doesn't seize it.

Again this is 指桑罵槐 'pointing at the mulberry while cursing the acacia.' While the immediate target is James Soong, Young and the US are in fact rightly holding Ma Ying-jeou responsible for the arms budget impasse.

The US does not want to see Taiwan go the way of South Korea and become a Chinese client state. After years of wondering if anyone in Washington gets Taiwan, we have an answer: Steve Young does.

Heady stuff from a longtime commentator on things Taiwan. I've also commented on the Taipei Times publishing a couple of articles today further expanding on the issues.

As for me, for the entire year and more I've been asking US officialdom to send someone over here with the clout and the understanding to talk directly to the Blues and inform them that the world doesn't revolve around them, and, to get the US to do it again and again until the message sinks in. It's an absolute delight to see the US actually doing that. Now if only Steve Young would brng me back a 10 pound brick of fresh parmesan from his next trip to the States, AIT would complete my happiness....

IMHO, the US really, really needs to do something about the price of the submarines. Even the supporters of the purchase have trouble swallowing that one.......and they would shut up the Blues instantly, exposing their intransigence-for-the-sake-of-intransigence for all to see.

EXTRA: This Taiwan Focus post, saved on my blog, written by someone I know to be an expert, has some very good background info on the arms purchase.

EXTRA: The pro-Blue China Post, traditionally pro-KMT and anti-Soong, attempted to recast the remarks as criticism of Soong's PFP:

Young's plea was directed at the People First Party, that is strongly opposed to the arms purchase.

James Soong, PFP chairman "on leave" to run for mayor of Taipei, considering the plea as "an ultimatum," said he is not opposed to the package per se.

"What we oppose is a fool's purchase," Soong said. That is a purchase of overly priced weapons not necessarily suitable for Taiwan's self-defense.

Soong said Young met him Wednesday. "I told him," he stressed, "the United States 'cannot tell us when to pass which piece of legislation.'" His party is most likely to ignore the plea and remain opposed to the purchase.


But as the Taipei Times and Feiren both pointed out in their discussions, Young's remarks are directed at Taiwan's leading invertebrate, Mayor Ma Ying-jeou of Taipei, Chairman of the KMT and presidential hopeful. This is a blunt warning about the future. Fortunately for the side of Right, I doubt the Blues will heed it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Arguments that the U.S. weapons are too expensive and too outdated, and that the US is just trying to stoke an arms race and profit from cross-strait tensions are nothing but political subterfuge on the part of the pan-Blue pro-unification groups. If they actually cared about issues like the expense, and weren’t afraid to argue their case, then they would allow the bill to be debated in the legislature.

Those are the excuses they use because, for a variety of reasons, it sounds better than saying what they really mean, which is "we don't need any weapons at all, because China is not OUR enemy. Weapons are waste of money, because as soon as Ma is president, he will begin gradual unification anyway".

What's scary is how effective they are in getting people to believe that those excuses are the actual reasons behind their opposition to maintaining a credible deterrent. It’s amazing that more people don’t see the obstruction of the pan-Blue leaders for what it is: unpatriotic and treacherous.

Anonymous said...

Pan-Blue are pro-China ONLY! They wouldn't care less if all of the Taiwanese are starving off the street somewhere because they move all their factories and other future Taiwanese jobs into China!

US is at fault as well. How about sign the FTA agreement with Taiwan for reward the business people that are giving Taiwanese jobs in their homeland? Punish those people from Taiwan that are giving China jobs in mainland China! That'll keep Taiwan from leaning toward China!

BTW, Ma is not born in Taiwan! He wouldn't give a rat's ass if Taiwanese are all dead right now in their gay China civil war, so he can take back that useless piece of land call China! China will be a huge resource drain on Taiwan because of the rebuild cost!!

PS. US had nothing to profit from Taiwan. In fact, US can make more money by cutting Taiwan loose! China offer cheap labors that Taiwan simply do not! US have the world's top marketing and top R&D skills! They just need cheap labors from any 3rd party countries to make their economic to work!

However, Taiwan is stuck somewhere in between, which is the worst position to be at right now. If Taiwanese can grow a brain, the people in Taiwan will take the same path that Japan take. Do you see Japanese giving away their technology to China and other countries around them? Only those ROChinse shit would give out our technology to some gay shit China BUM, so they can fuck us with!!

Iron_Jackal_TW

Anonymous said...

Do NOT publish this on your blog!!

Hey Michael,

We need to talk in e-mails! I'm very out of touch on Taiwanese life style on internet usage right now because I'm not in Taiwan for far too long!

Pan-blue is winning due to their ability for effective marketing, which means they know how to reach more Taiwanese people than I can right now!

I need to know what's the hottest hang out sites for Taiwanese teen all the way up to your age [people beyond your age are not computer friendly]!!

So far, I have sites like www.hinet.net, tw.match.yahoo.com, and so on [which I have not taken action on because I'm still working on my 2 sites... Amazon profile and Youtube video]!

I need sites to push on my views! I'm not talking about the English site like Forumosa, which only attract certain type of Taiwanese guys and girls. It is really a sub-culture in Taiwan. What I need is to hit on the big time mainstream channels!!

Anyhow, my e-mail address is "Iron_Jackal@hotmail.com"! Please feel free to e-mail me on other popular internet sites for my next phrase of my plan!!

Iron_Jackal_TW

Anonymous said...

As for the difficulties we are facing today, I think the US government and the international medias are at least partly responsible. Their endorsement in the pan-Blues and their prejudice toward Taiwan somehow empowered the pan-Blues to do whatever they like. And the pan-Blue media were able to sell pro-China view like it was the view supported by the US government. It is time for the State Department to do the right thing before it's too late.

--domesticopinions

Anonymous said...

Thanks Scott, you spoke what are on my mind.

The Taiwanese are not conscious of being selling out by pan-blue, it’s not just “amazing”, it’s really sad and tragic.


To iron_jackal_TW and domesticopinion:

I share your frustration. However, I am kind of reluctant to point finger on either US or international medias.

It’s us, the Taiwanese, that move tens of thousands of factories with capitals and techs to the mainland to prop a hostile government. We Taiwanese are the majority but yet we elect a pan-blue congress to ruin our future.

Nobody else but we Taiwanese to blame. We are short-sighted and ignorant, aren’t we?