At a legislative hearing yesterday the US sent down some signals that the arms package may be further modified.Douglas Paal, director of American Institute in Taiwan, has suggested that Taiwan could propose a different mix of weapons to be included in the pending arms procurement package if it better met the country's defensive needs, opposition Kuomintang Legislator John Chiang disclosed yesterday.
At a legislative hearing yesterday with Foreign Affairs Minister Mark Chen (陳唐山), Chiang urged the government to be more pragmatic in framing the arms deal, and said the U.S. envoy was open to adjusting the package, such as replacing the submarines with minelayers.
Minelayers or minesweepers? Still, this is good news. Think attack aircraft, guys.
In response to a question from Chiang, [Foreign Minister] Chen said he wasn't sure if the U.S. would support provocative behavior by Taiwan (in terms of redefining its national status) that was backed by advanced American weapons, but assured the legislator he would clarify the country's policies with Washington.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said that although the U.S. has stated it would respect Taiwan's handling of the arms bill, Taiwan should also make an appropriate commitment to its own security.
"The U.S. would not object if we choose to buy the weapons from other countries or use (the budget) on repairing our existing defensive facilities. The issue the U.S. cares about is Taiwan's determination to defend itself, and it seems like we haven't been demonstrating that," Hsiao said.
Is the ice breaking? We can only hope.
UPDATE: Nope. It's not.
[Taiwan] [US] [China] [US Foreign Policy] [submarines]
7 comments:
Priority #1 should be the cruise missiles. The message has to be loud and clear: You kill our innocent civilians, we flatten those fancy skyscrapers in Pudong.
After this we can think about more fighters, armaments and upgrades for the aircraft we already have. More surveilance and battlefield management infrastructure. Aegis anyone?
this sounds a lot like al queda. :)
"you attack my army, i attack your skyscraper."
Taiwan is the aggrieved here, not the aggressor. It's all about credible deterrence. Sure Taiwan could point missiles at military bases and power plants, and they would be of more practical use in stemming an invasion. But, Beijing would rather lose a dam or a division than lose its face, and the skyscrapers falling would get sooo much more airtime on CNN.
I was going to suggest they target the Olympics site, but that's too far inland I think.
how about better command and control systems for survivability? Less sexy than yr "attack aircraft" but likely to make a bigger contribution to defence than another squadron of F16s (IMHO). More of those would be overwhelmed by the Sukhois being bought hand over fist by the PLAAF anyway(?) Defensive? Yes, but who are we kidding if we think Taiwan should arm to attack (on a big scale) and not defend?
For the 3% of GDP that's being set as the benchmark, Taiwan could have both it's cruise missiles and an upgraded infrastructure.
as for AEGIS, the Kidds are likely a first step in getting ready for that capability (as these are air defence destroyers, albeit buit for the Shah of Iran in the 70s. But wil the US sell AEGIS? Its not ALL about what Taiwan might want - the mainlanders might be unhappy about such a system being sold to the 'renegade province' and thats something for the US to keep in mind (maybe)...just spitballing here....
I've been calling for that too -- hardened command sites and airfields, more on ECW, etc. There's little that Taiwan doesn't need, except subs at $1.2 billion a piece.
Michael
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