Tracking Number: 241949
Title: "Bush Authorizes F-16 Sales to Taiwan."
President Bush's authorization of the sale of 150 US-made F-16 fighters to Taiwan is in accord with the ongoing US policy of maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and of maintaining solid relations both with Taiwan and mainland China. (920908)
Translated Title: Bush autoriza venta F-16 a Taiwan. (920908)
Date: 19920908
Text:
BUSH AUTHORIZES F-16 SALES TO TAIWAN
(VOA Editorial) (460)
(Following is an editorial, broadcast by the Voice of America September 8, reflecting the views of the U.S. government.)
President George Bush recently announced that he is authorizing the sale of 150 U.S.-made F-16A/B jet fighter planes to Taiwan. The planes will be configured for defense. In a speech on September 2, President Bush said the sale of the planes to Taiwan "will help maintain peace and stability in an area of great concern to (the United States) -- the Asia-Pacific region."
For the past decade, it has been the policy of the United States to preserve and promote extensive, close and friendly commercial, cultural and other relations between the people of the United States and the people of Taiwan, as well as the people on the China mainland and all other peoples of the Western Pacific area. In order to help Taiwan meet any threat to its security, it has also been U.S. policy to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character.
President Bush noted that "in the last few years, after decades of confrontation, great strides have been made in reducing tensions between Taipei and Beijing. And during this period," Bush said, "the United States has provided Taiwan with sufficient defensive capabilities to sustain the confidence it needs to reduce these tensions. And that same sense of security has underpinned Taiwan's dramatic evolution toward democracy."
In authorizing the sale of the F-16A/B fighter planes to Taiwan, President Bush also stressed that his decision "does not change the commitment of this administration and its predecessors to the three communiques with the People's Republic of China." These include the Shanghai Communique of 1972, which laid the groundwork for normalizing relations between the United States and China; the 1979 communique, which provided for U.S.-China diplomatic relations; and the 1982 communique on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. President Bush said that he has "always stressed that the importance of the 1982 communique on arms sales to Taiwan lies in its promotion of common political goals -- peace and stability in the area through mutual restraint." As President Bush said, the United States continues to follow its "one-China policy" and to recognize the People's Republic of China "as the sole legitimate government of China."
It is clear that U.S. policy over the past decade has worked. U.S. policy has promoted stability, security and peace across the Taiwan Strait. The U.S. decision to sell F-16A/B fighter planes to Taiwan will contribute to continued stability and provide a further basis for the rapidly growing exchanges between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China.
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File Identification: 09/08/92, TXT204; 09/08/92, AXF202; 09/08/92, EFP203; 09/08/92, LDP211; 09/08/92, NFS263; 09/14/92, LSD110
Product Name: Wireless File; VOA Editorials
Product
Code: WF; VO
Languages: Spanish
Keywords: BUSH, GEORGE/Foreign Relations: East Asia & Pacific; TAIWAN-US RELATIONS; CHINA-US RELATIONS; TAIWAN/Defense & Military; SECURITY ARRANGEMENTS; ARMS
TRANSFERS; MILITARY AIRCRAFT
Document Type: EDI
Thematic Codes: 1EA
Target Areas: AF; EA; AR; NE
PDQ Text Link: 241949; 242718
USIA Notes:
*92090804.TXT
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