Washington, Aug. 4 (CNA) U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) said Wednesday that the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act is aimed to ensure that Taiwan will have the essential self-defense capabilities, and to accomplish this he and Sen. Robert G. Torricelli (D-NJ) proposed to bolster the process for defense sales to Taiwan and help Taiwan achieve and maintain an adequate military readiness.
Both Stanley Roth, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs, and Kurt Campbell, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, however, voiced the Clinton administration's strong opposition to this legislation, claiming that the Taiwan Relations Act has worked very well to maintain peace and stability in the Western Pacific and the unintended consequences of the new bill are likely to be dangerous.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Helms stressed in his opening statement that "the need to enhance our defense relationship is obvious" due to the following reasons:
The reunification of Taiwan has become an increasingly high agitation issue for Beijing; Beijing constantly demonstrates a willingness to use intimidation to achieve its goal; part of Beijing's strategy is to continue its pressure on the US to limit or cease arms sales to Taiwan; and "our friends in Taiwan have a military capability that has operated in virtual isolation for over twenty years."
Taiwan's military does not conduct joint exercises with the US military and is not even able to observe many of American exercises. No US officers above the rank of colonel or Navy captain can go to Taiwan and those who do are limited in the things they can say and do. "This has certainly had a corrosive effect on Taiwan's military preparedness, at exactly the time Taiwan faces a growing military threat from China," explained the senior Republican senator.
Helms added that "The United States' strategic interests, US law and US moral values dictate that we assist our long-time friends on Taiwan in meeting these challenges and that is why Sen. Torricelli and I introduced this bill" in March.
But Sen. Joseph R. Biden (D-DE) then pointed out that the Taiwan Relations Act, which he voted for 20 years ago, has helped peace and stability in the Western Pacific and "China should have no doubt that our commitment (to Taiwan's security) remains firm."
And he said he is concerned that passage of this new legislation "would be the equivalent of waving a red cape in front of Beijing and inviting China to charge" against Taiwan, because there is no security measure included in the new bill that is precluded by the Taiwan Relations Act and the bill's mistaken conclusion that Taiwan security is primarily a function of its military capabilities.
Taiwan's security, Biden believed, "flows from its democratic form of government, its growing economic, cultural and political contacts with the mainland, and ultimately, the United States' abiding commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan question."
Therefore, he said, "we should concentrate on strengthening those areas rather than spend time preauthorizing the sales of weapon systems, some of which don't even exist yet." He is also convinced that the timing of this bill is very ill-timed, since US relations with Communist China leave a lot to be desired at the moment.
Biden added that there is no single issue with greater potential to bring the US and the PRC into conflict than Taiwan, and "a surefire way to spark such a conflict is for the US to reinforce the growing perception in Beijing, however mistakenly it may be, that the US is hostile to China or pursuing the fragmentation of China."
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) also said what is needed now more than ever is "dialogue across the Taiwan Strait -- dialogue without Taiwan attempting to change the framework unilaterally, and dialogue without the PRC making belligerent threats, taking military action, or trying in other ways to squeeze Taiwan."
Helms and Torricelli introduced the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act in late March mainly because Beijing has consistently refused to renounce the use of force against Taiwan and has repeatedly threatened force against Taiwan.
The act authorizes the US president to sell Taiwan such defense equipment as theater missile defense equipment and related items, ground-based and naval-based missile defense systems.
(By Nelson Chung)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
