Look, Ma, No Arms
CONTINETTI, MATTHEW
EDITORIAL Look, Ma, No Arms Early in 2001, President Bush approved the export of arms to democratic Taiwan. At the time, Bush said the United States would do “whatever it takes” to defend its...
...Let’s not forget, however, that the Taiwan Relations Act also gives Congress a say in the defense assistance provided to Taiwan...
...This is another reason the deal is necessary...
...To that end, in recent months the two countries have resumed crossstrait talks, allowed direct fl ights between the mainland and Taipei, and pursued further economic integration...
...The greater the military imbalance between China and Taiwan, the more likely China is to use military force in a cross-strait dispute...
...At the time, Bush said the United States would do “whatever it takes” to defend its tiny, besieged Pacifi c ally...
...Yet Ma also understands that he must negotiate from a position of strength...
...Its foot-dragging in years past helped produce this impasse (though Taiwan’s thenopposition Kuomintang party was also a problem...
...For the United States to renege on its commitments would weaken Ma’s hand at a critical time...
...Beijing has already gotten away with a lot...
...The military buildup on the Chinese side of the Taiwan Strait continues uninterrupted...
...China has reasons for its buildup...
...First the deal was held up because Washington was displeased with Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian’s pro-independence rhetoric...
...The Taiwanese legislature has appropriated the money with which to buy the weapons...
...A massive, underground nuclear submarine base was recently detected on Hainan Island...
...The new excuse is that fulfi lling our end of the bargain would upset China on the verge of next week’s Beijing Olympics...
...Should the White House continue to drag its feet, it will fall to Congress to speak out in support of a democratic ally...
...Taiwan requires arms to serve as a deterrent against the mainland...
...There are now more than a thousand Chinese missiles pointed at Taiwan...
...How else to explain the administration’s recent decision to freeze $16 billion worth of the arms deals...
...Bush approved the sale of Patriot missiles, Apache helicopters, and submarines to Taiwan more than seven years ago...
...Matthew Continetti, for the Editors...
...American self-doubt and lack of follow through—in effect, a lack of American resolve and confi dence in Ma’s government—may lead Chinese policymakers to think that they can act provocatively...
...That was yesterday...
...Since then Taiwan has also requested 66 F-16 fi ghter jets to replace its aging planes...
...After all, his government is only a few months old and Beijing is no doubt searching for weaknesses...
...Taiwan president Ma Ying-Jeou took offi ce last May, pledging to improve relations between Taiwan and China while protecting his democracy’s sovereignty...
...Today, it’s looking more like Bush was just kidding...
...And it certainly must have been a surprise to the authors of the Pentagon’s annual report on Chinese military power, who have for the past several years noted the dangerous shift in the military balance of power between Taiwan and China...
...In the last decade the Chinese have deployed more than 300 advanced aircraft across the Strait...
...We are afraid of upsetting China and afraid, in turn, of what an upset China might do in response...
...Why the delay...
...We hope he is right...
...All of these excuses point to the actual reason for the delay: America’s current Taiwan policy is motivated by fear...
...And the consequence of this fear is a weakened position for the United States and its East Asian allies...
...Now Chen is gone, replaced by Ma’s quietist diplomacy...
...It is meant, among other things, to deter unilateral declarations of Taiwanese independence...
...This must have been news to the Taiwanese government, which says the weapons are needed to defend Taiwan...
...The authors of the Defense Department’s 2008 report on Chinese military power wrote, the “ongoing deployment of short-range ballistic missiles, enhanced amphibious warfare capabilities, and modern, long-range anti-air systems opposite Taiwan are reminders of Beijing’s unwillingness to renounce the use of force...
...In some cases it has already even put down payments...
...On July 16, the head of Pacifi c Command, Admiral Timothy Keating, told an audience at the Heritage Foundation that the administration has concluded “there is no pressing, compelling need for, at this moment, arms sales to Taiwan of the systems that we’re talking about...
...In return, America has given Taiwan a whole lot of nothing...
...Even if this were the case, and it probably is not, the administration has to shoulder much of the blame...
...China is a rising autocratic power that has suffered no consequences for its gross human rights violations and support for rogue regimes...
...And once the Olympics are over, and the weapons still have not been exported, expect the administration to say that it cannot fulfi ll its commitments to Taiwan because to do so may jeopardize China’s participation in the North Korean denuclearization talks...
...China has fi ve ongoing submarine programs...
...The administration has provided only a series of excuses...
...On a visit to Taipei last week, former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told reporters that he expected the arms sales will be approved...
...And the message Congress might deliver is simple: Who is served when America neglects her friends in a misguided effort not to offend her rivals...
Vol. 13 • August 2008 • No. 44
