Taiwan calls for U.S. arms sales
ROC Central News Agency
2011/03/08 22:16:53
Los Angeles, March 7 (CNA) Taiwan's foreign affairs minister reiterated Monday Taipei's call for the United States to sell F-16C/D jet fighters and diesel submarines, which he said will help lower tension in the Taiwan Strait.
Timothy C.T. Yang voiced the call while answering reporters' questions during a visit to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Los Angeles at the end of a visit to the United States in which he gave a series of speeches in the state of Georgia.
He said that Taiwan and China can resolve their bilateral problems peacefully, but noted that it is not up to Taiwan alone to achieve an easing of the cross-strait tension. Yang added that Taiwan still needs enough strength to be able to control the situation.
Although the cross-strait tension has relaxed over the past few years since the 2008 inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou, China's military expansion is still impacting the cross-strait situation, with an increasingly expanding military imbalance between the two sides, Yang said.
Citing Reagan's "peace through strength" policy to manifest the importance of U.S. arm sales for Taiwan, Yang said that where strength does not exist, peace will vanish.
Yang was invited to the U.S. by the World Forum hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Republican think tank. (By Leaf Yeh and Elizabeth Hsu) ENDITEM/J
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