Taiwan Security in the News

Yesterday Taiwan News announced that....

Active duty U.S. military personnel to work for AIT

Serving U.S. military officers will staff the American representative office in Taiwan for the first time since the United States switched its diplomatic recognition to rival China 26 years ago, an American official said yesterday.

Nadine Saik of the American Institute in Taiwan said at least one officer - a colonel - will arrive in August to take up the post of liaison affairs officer.

The liaison affairs officer is the equivalent of the military attache in a conventional United States Embassy.

Saik said the officer will take over from retired U.S. military personnel who had been acting on a contractual basis.

The decision to send active duty military personnel to AIT was first reported in the London-based military journal Jane's Defence Weekly several months ago, but this appears to be the first time an American official has confirmed it.

This is indeed good news from several points of view, from an upgraded US presence to improved military cooperation in event of conflict in the Straits.

U.S. congressman aims to boost Taiwan security

U.S. Congressman Robert Andrews (Democrat, New Jersey) submitted a concurrent resolution Thursday, calling for enhanced security for Taiwan.

The Andrews resolution, which was referred to the House of Representatives Thursday, proposed that it was the wish of Congress that the United States should abolish all restrictions on visits by U.S. military high-level officials to Taiwan and should sell the Aegis system to Taiwan to help the island defend itself against China's threat of missile attacks.

The resolution encourages U.S. President George W. Bush to abolish all restrictions on visits by United States generals and flag officers to Taiwan to help safeguard the U.S' security interests in the Asia-Pacific region.

The resolution includes references to grave concerns concerning the continued deployment by the People's Republic of China of hundreds of ballistic missiles directed toward Taiwan, which threaten the security and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

The full text of the resolution follows:

Whereas for over half a century a close relationship has existed between the United States and Taiwan which has been of enormous economic, cultural, and strategic advantage to both countries;

Whereas Taiwan today is a full-fledged democracy with a vibrant economy and a vigorous multi-party political system that respects human rights and the rule of law and is an ally of the United States;

Whereas the security of the 23 million people in Taiwan is threatened by the deployment by the People's Republic of China of over 700 short-range ballistic missiles targeted at Taiwan, and the purchase by China of advanced weaponry systems, including Su-27 and Su-30 fighter planes, Kilo submarines, and Sovremenny destroyers;

Whereas in a July 19, 2005 report, the Department of Defense stated that "the cross-Strait balance of power is shifting towards Beijing... Chinese air, naval and missile force modernization is increasing demands on Taiwan to develop countermeasures that would enable it to avoid being quickly overwhelmed";

Whereas this report stated that military objectives of the People's Republic of China include building counters to third-parties, including potential United States intervention in cross-Strait crises, and that Chinese preparations come against the background of a policy toward Taiwan that espouses "peaceful" reunification;

Whereas Taiwan was threatened by missile exercises conducted by the People's Republic of China in August 1995 and again in March 1996 when Taiwan was conducting its first free and direct presidential elections;

Whereas section 2(b)(4) of the Taiwan Relations Act (22 U.S.C. 3301(b)(4)) considers "any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States";

Whereas section 2(b)(6) of the Taiwan Relations Act (22 U.S.C. 3301(b)(6)) requires the United States "to maintain the capacity... to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan";

Whereas United States generals and flag officers are not allowed to visit Taiwan and meet their Taiwanese counterparts regularly on a self-imposed prohibition by the Government of the United States and this lack of high-level regular military contacts will compromise an effective contingency plan when the United States responds to a potential cross-Strait crisis; and

Whereas the July 14, 2005, comments by General Zhu Chenghu of the People's Republic of China advocating the use of nuclear weapons against the United States are both damaging to relations between the United States and China and a violation of China's commitment to resolve its differences with Taiwan peacefully.

This is another positive development, though it would have been nice to have been a binding resolution.

Taiwan void felt at security forum

ASEAN met without Taiwan:

Asia's main security gathering, which convened in Laos yesterday, has a gaping hole because it does not include Taiwan, one of the region's most worrying flashpoints, analysts said.

The 25-member ASEAN Regional Forum covers virtually every country in East Asia, including North Korea and Myanmar, but even Asia's pariah states have what Taiwan lacks - a level of regional diplomatic recognition.

The fact that none of the 25 participants in the ARF consider Taiwan an independent country means membership for the island is "just not going to happen," according to Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

"The ASEAN Regional Forum is where nations, sovereign governments get together so Taiwan obviously wouldn't qualify," Downer said Friday.

Of course that shit Downer had to make sure to slip in a put-down of Taiwan, like Peter Pettigrew sucking up to Lord Voldemort.

[Taiwan] [China]