Thursday, January 7, 2010

China slams missile sales to Taiwan

BEIJING, Jan 8 — The United States has approved a sale of advanced missiles to Taiwan, drawing an immediate rebuke from Beijing and a rare call from a Chinese vice-admiral for retaliatory sanctions.

The US Defence Department announced late on Wednesday a contract giving American firm Lockheed Martin the green light to sell an unspecified number of Patriot air defence missiles to Taiwan.

The deal represents the first US arms sale to Taiwan completed under President Barack Obama, who took office last year — even though it is part of a US$6.5 billion (RM22.1 billion) weapons package approved by his predecessor George W Bush in 2008.

The missiles, among the most advanced in their class, are capable of shooting down Chinese short- and mid-range missiles, say defence experts.

“This is the last piece that Taiwan has been waiting for”, Wendell Minnick, the Asia bureau chief for Defense News, told Reuters.

By pushing through the deal, Washington hopes to assuage growing concerns in Taipei that the US has become less committed to Taiwan’s defence in the face of expanding US-Sino cooperation.

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since they split in 1949 at the end of a civil war, but Beijing sees the island as a part of its territory that is awaiting reunification - by force if needed.

Taiwan estimates that China has 1,000 to 1,500 missiles aimed at the island.

The arms deal drew a swift rebuke from Beijing yesterday.

Beijing had “already made stern representations to the US side”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said at a routine press briefing.

“We urge the US to clearly recognise the severe consequences of arms sales to Taiwan.”

Just before the contract was announced, Chinese Vice-Admiral Yang Yi talked tough, proposing that China take “defensive countermeasures” against US companies that sell weapons to Taiwan while hawking their aircraft and other products to China.

“Apart from just protesting to and taking action against the US government, why not impose sanctions on these troublemakers?” he said in an interview with the semi-official China News Service that was published yesterday.

“We must let these enterprises and interest groups face heavy losses here. We should make their economic losses here heavier than what they gain from selling arms to Taiwan.”

While keeping ties between China and the US on an even keel is vitally important, ‘on matters of principle, we cannot always give way’, said Vice-Adm Yang, who is also a researcher with the Strategic Studies Institute at China’s National Defence University.

Last month, in the local press, at least two other scholars also called for sanctions to deter arms sales.

China suspended military ties with the US when the Pentagon announced the arms deal in October 2008. Ties were resumed only after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Beijing last February.

Even if Beijing once again freezes military exchanges, sanctions might not be on the cards, said Professor Shi Yinhong, who heads the Centre for American Studies at Renmin University.

He said: ‘Arms sales to Taiwan are just one part of China-US ties now. The Chinese government will consider the whole picture.’

He noted that the deal was ‘smaller than originally expected’. The sale approved on Wednesday did not include the advanced F-16 fighter jets, which Taipei had requested but which Beijing had specifically opposed.

“It seems President Obama wanted to honour the deal, but took efforts to limit its impact on bilateral ties,” said Prof Shi. ‘He tried to keep a bad deed limited, so to speak.’

Taiwan has remained a thorny issue in ties between the US and China - two global heavyweights whose economic and political interests are now more interlinked than before.

Some analysts predict a rough year ahead for Sino-US ties, given ongoing trade friction, arms sales to Taiwan and Obama’s plans to meet Tibet’s exiled Dalai Lama. — The Straits Times

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