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- Chinese expert says ‘it’s farcical to want to buy lots of US weapons’
TAIPEI: Far from being satisfied with a $6.4 billion arms package proposed by Washington last week, Taiwan said on Wednesday it wants more weapons, and more advanced ones at that, a move sure to further infuriate China.
Taiwan, which has seen its military superiority over China gradually slip over the past few years on the back of a massive rise in Chinese defence spending, urgently wants to get its hands on advanced F-16 fighter jets and submarines.
US officials have given no clear signals about when that equipment may arrive. Washington may hold off given China’s strident reaction to Friday’s package, which included a more modest offering of Patriot missiles and Black Hawk helicopters.
Sino-US relations are already tense due to a series of other spats over the value of China’s currency, trade protectionism and Internet freedoms. “We hope for the F-16s. We’re still asking about submarines. Although relations have improved with mainland China, Taiwan still needs its own defensive power,” said Tony Wang, spokesman for Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou. “We need a sense of security.”
Taiwan’s current submarine fleet of four includes two boats built during World War Two which go to sea complete with some of their original brass fittings. China, by contrast, has more than 60 submarines and a rapidly modernising surface fleet.
Taiwan already operates earlier-model F-16s. Defence officials want the more up-to-date variant to deal with China’s growing numbers of Russian-designed Su-30 and Su-27 fighters. The United States, wary of upsetting Beijing too much, has refused to sell Taiwan top-of-the-line weapons before, including air-to-air missiles and advanced warships.
“In terms of military modernisation, we’re trying to catch up,” said George Tsai, political scientist at Taipei’s Chinese Cultural University. “But the US has its own calculations.” Taiwan officials say China has aimed 1,400 missiles at the island, a claim that fuels sentiment for beefing up defence. “If you say mainland China is aiming missiles at us, then we need more weapons,” said Yan Chih-hung, 33, a Taiwan IT worker.
“It’s a matter of karma.” The United States is one of the world’s only countries willing to sell arms to Taiwan due to a 1979 Congressional act that seeks to help the island defend itself.
China says there is no need to sell Taiwan weapons.
Expert: “Cross-Strait relations are good at present, and there’s no atmosphere of war,” Liu Guoshen, a Taiwan expert at China’s Xiamen University, told nationalist Chinese newspaper the Global Times. “It’s farcical to want to buy lots of US weapons.” Taiwan’s government for its part has played down China’s reaction to the arms sales. “Taiwan will always seek weapons, and the only question will be whether the United States approves them,” said Cabinet spokesman Su Jun-pin. reuters
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\02\04\story_4-2-2010_pg4_1
