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U.S. will not use arms sales to bargain with China: diplomat

ROC Central News Agency

2010/06/22 18:31:39

By Zep Hu & Bear Lee

Washington, June 21 (CNA) There is no chance that the United States would terminate its arms sales to Taiwan in exchange for China's removal of its missiles that are aimed at Taiwan, a Taiwanese diplomat based in Washington said Monday.

The official, who asked not to be named, was commenting on media reports that U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein had asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates at a Senate hearing whether the U.S. would consider the possibility of stopping its arms sales to Taiwan if China removed its missiles opposite Taiwan.

Gates, who did not respond directly to Feinstein's question, had said earlier that arm sales to Taiwan are a political issue to be decided on the basis of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and the judgment of the U.S. president.

The Taiwan official said that the Feinstein, who recently visited China, has been consistently opposed to U.S. arm sales to other countries, not just to Taiwan.

The diplomat said the U.S. government has made it clear that it would not link its arms sales to Taiwan with the removal of China's missiles, and that it has never responded to similar suggestions by Beijing in the past.

Under the TRA, the U.S. is obliged to provide defensive arms to Taiwan.

China has not given any indications that it intends to remove the estimated 1,300 missiles it has deployed along its southeastern coast opposite Taiwan, despite warming cross-strait relations since President Ma Ying-jeou took office in May 2008.