The Obama administration has notified Congress of plans to sell Taiwan more weaponry, likely including Black Hawk helicopters, PAC-3 batteries, and C4ISRT defense networking material.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6834666.html

That is good for the USA to sell arms to Taiwan, China which makes it a good excuse to spend more on defense and develop advanced weapons like the recent GPS-like Beidou sattellite l and anti-missile tech.
All the sold weapons will finally be in the hands of China, a smart learner of foreign high-tech.
But even if USA sells F-35 to Taiwan, it wont make any difference in the military power enabling Taiwan to defend itself from the fierce attack from mainland. Korean War and Vienam War are just the demonstrations.
USA is feeling too good about themselves. They have not met a real capable opponent in the field till he got China in the world war two. Now it is time for China to teach him another hard lesson I think they will remember forever till it declines in power and degrades into a second class country.
Without arms, USA is a beggar who can not do anything and see how much debt he owes now . But this is not perceived by sensible people.

WTH? The US and China were allies in World War II!!

Sorry to be specific, I am talking about the time after world war two, in the 50th and 70th.

Defense News
01/26/2010

U.S. Prepares New Taiwan Arms Package Despite Beijing Hysterics


By Wendell Minnick

Taipei - The U.S. appears unwilling to stop selling arms to Taiwan despite aggressive lobbying and pressure from China.

Sources in Taipei and Washington have confirmed the United States is preparing the release of U.S. congressional notifications for new arms on hold since the Bush administration.

New notifications are expected soon, said Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the Washington-based U.S.-Taiwan Business Council.

These include 60 UH-60M Black Hawk utility helicopters, a submarine design study, phase two of the C4I/Link 16 "Po Sheng" program, two Osprey-class mine-hunter patrol boats, and additional Patriot PAC-3 missile defense systems.

Taiwan is facing about 1,400 short-range ballistic missiles from China and plans to deploy the new PAC-3s in the central and southern regions of Taiwan.

On submarines, Taiwan has been awaiting the release of congressional notifications since the Bush administration approved the sale of eight diesel submarines in 2001. A U.S. government source said they most likely would be smaller than conventional diesel attack submarines currently being deployed by China and other regional navies. Taiwan does not need deep submersibles due to the shallow waters of the Taiwan Strait, he said.

Taiwan has an urgent need for new utility helicopters to replace ageing UH-1H "Huey" helicopters procured during the 1980s. The requirement was highlighted during the recent Typhoon Morakot that killed more than 500 people in southern Taiwan in August.

Taiwan's Air Force also received a briefing from the U.S. Air Force on the General Atomics MQ-1C Sky Warrior tactical UAV in 2009. The Sky Warrior is an upgraded unarmed variant of the Predator. Taiwan's Air Force has a requirement for tactical UAVs to monitor sea lanes, coastal areas, disaster areas and conduct battlefield reconnaissance.

"USAF briefed on UAVs based upon Taiwan Air Force interest in building better ISR capabilities. They are in the info-gathering mode so nothing significant yet," said a U.S. government official.

Military-run Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has developed a variety of UAVs, but has been unable to fulfill an Air Force requirement for an advanced, extended-range, multipurpose UAV. However, the Army is considering the procurement of CSIST's Chung Shyang.

Taiwan will have a tough time balancing new procurement costs as it implements a major streamlining and command restructuring plan. There will also be strains on the military as it begins to phase out conscription for an all-volunteer system beginning in 2011 and targeted for completion in 2015.

To complicate matters, the United States has been hesitant to release new arms as China's increasing political and economic influence in Washington expands. The noisiest complaint by China is Taiwan's request for 66 F-16C/D Block 50/52 fighters to replace aging F-5s.

Since 2006, the U.S. government has refused to accept Taiwan's letter-of-request for price and availability for new F-16s. Chinese officials have called any release of F-16s a "red line."

Taiwan's Air Force also has plans to upgrade its older F-16A/B and Indigenous Defense Fighters. The Navy has similar upgrade requirements that include refurbishing six French-built La Fayette-class frigates and two Dutch-built diesel submarines. Nien-Dzu "Andrew" Yang, deputy minister of defense for policy, has denied media reports the Navy wants to procure eight Perry-class frigates from the United States to replace eight Knox-class frigates.

Chen I-Hsin, vice president of the Foundation on Asia-Pacific Peace Studies, said Taiwan needs new U.S. arms to discourage China from becoming too aggressive. Even as cross-Strait relations improve, Taiwan still needs arms to allow Taipei to negotiate from a position of strength, he said.

And people wonder why China needs to raise double-digit military spending every year.

And people wonder why the US needs to spend $500 billion on defense every year. You see where this conversation is getting us?

Nice slippery slope.

China has no bases around America and has never threatened to use force against the US. The PRC and ROC is still in a state of civil war, so selling weapons to the ROC by a third party directly threatens China's national security.

Likewise, China's double-digit increases in military spending is the reason why the ROC purchases arms from abroad. See where this is getting us?

^^^ Troll alert

ROC is a run-away separatist and with a weaker economy even than that of Guangdong, it is never capable of defending itself if attacked.
No matter how developed weapons it got from USA, it is doomed to be loser from the beginning.

Goodness, this is like the 5th or 6th time that you've compared Taiwan and Guangdong's GDP.






Why don't you tell me which is 4 times larger in size and population than the other - Taiwan or Guangdong?



Does South Korea have a larger GDP than Japan?

President Ma, government welcome US arms package


http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/arch...1/31/2003464842

By Ko Shu-ling and Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTERS
Sunday, Jan 31, 2010, Page 1

The Taiwanese government yesterday welcomed news that Washington has moved forward with an arms package for Taiwan, with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) saying it would help advance cross-strait relations and boost his administration’s confidence in dealing with Beijing.

“These are weapons we have wanted for a long time. Most of them are defensive,” Ma said yesterday. “The weapons will give us more confidence in protecting Taiwan and help us forge ahead with cross-strait ties. The more confidence we have and the safer we feel, the more interactions we will have with mainland China.”

Ma told reporters on the way back to Taipei yesterday from his visit to Latin America that the US government notified Congress of the US$6.4 billion arms sales about nine hours before his plane left Los Angeles. Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said the news did not come as a surprise because Ma was notified in advance by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had received word from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in Los Angeles.

“We feel gratified,” Wang said. “It shows that Taiwan-US relations are smooth and the mutual trust and interactions are sound.”

It also indicated that the fallout over the US beef controversy was limited to trade, he said, adding that the Ma administration would continue to deal with the US beef matter carefully.

Wang said that AIT Director Raymond Burghardt had said on different occasions during Ma’s stopovers in the US that Taiwan-US relations are “excellent” and in “great shape.”

Speaking about Taiwan-US relations over the past 20 months, Ma said they were headed in the right direction because the cross-strait detente helped improve ties with the US. He said mutual trust is stable because he delivers what he promises and his words are consistent with his actions. The interactions are frequent in various areas including the economy, politics and military affairs, he said.

At a separate setting yesterday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said many senior officials in the administration of US President Barack Obama had publicly expressed the view that Washington would follow the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) by selling defensive weapons to Taiwan.

Sources close to the foreign ministry said the notification shows that the current row with the US over bone-in beef imports has had no affect on overall Taiwan-US ties as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had warned.

When asked about the ministry’s response to China’s protest pf the US’ decision, Chen refused to make any direct comments. He said the TRA is a US domestic law and the White House was abiding by the law by forwarding the notification to Congress.

The AIT said the US notified both Taiwan and China before the notification was sent forward. However, “we did not consult the PRC [People’s Republic of China] about the sale,” AIT press officer Christopher Kavanagh said.

Kavanagh said he did not have information of when both sides were notified or if they were informed simultaneously.

“The Chinese government has long opposed US arms sale to Taiwan. The US is committed to building a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship with China,” he said.

The decision to sell Taiwan defensive arms is based upon the government’s evaluation of Taiwan’s defensive needs, he said, and is consistent with the US “one China” policy based on the Three Joint-Communiques and the TRA.

Furthermore, the arms sale “contributes to maintaining the security and the stability across the Taiwan Strait,” he said.

what really impressive is that if behind all this, taiwan and china are actually collaborating, so taiwan act like they are with US against china and wanting to buy all of US hi-tech weaponry solely for defense purpose while transferring all of the technology to china behind US back

what important is the communications system, and I 'm sure US is developing sophisticated bio weaponry, they learn this from their past, they managed to kill 30 millions native americans w/o a single blood shed n in a short period of time, believed that they were deliberately poisoned, it's extremely effective, 90% of natives americans vanished you'll hardly see any indians in US / canada today
the way that white people saw and treated native american reflect the way they see and treat asian today with slightly different being asian a bit more useful for them

Yes, and if the Moon were made of blue cheese, it would be edible. What's your point?

his point is that it would be really cool if that were the case =D

Don't they know that probably still there are even nukes on Taiwan?

Civil war? lol. China is Taiwan's biggest trading partner.

Give proof.

good news. This will certainly guarantee PLA a hefty increase towards its own budget. Don't think Robert Gates can play dumb and ask 'what for?'.