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Arms Sales to Taiwan ---- Important Bargaining Chip America Uses to Contain China
Seeking world domination and establishing a unipolar world under US control is a strategic goal long been pursued by the US government. US strategy toward China is an important component of its global strategy. For a long time, proceeding from its geographical strategic needs of going from controlling the continents of Europe and Asia to dominating the whole globe, the United States has regarded a powerful country arisen in East Asia and Europe as a greatest threat to the realization of its global strategy.
As the largest developing country, China has always been under the "concern" of the United States, while Taiwan is an important bargaining chip used by the United States to contain China. US arms sale to Taiwan, regarded as an important means for maintaining Taiwan's present state of separation, was in the past, is at present and will be in the future, a main card in the US strategy toward China.
For 50 years, in order to achieve its political aim of using Taiwan to contain China and maintaining the state of no reunification and no independence, and no war and no peace, the United States has, in different periods and in accordance with different needs, alternately conducted four different types of arms sales to Taiwan, delivering a large batch of advanced weaponry, equipment and technology to China's Taiwan Island, thereby controlling Taiwan and pinning down the mainland.
During the middle of the 20th century, the United States showed all-round hostility toward China. In order to support the Kuomintang government in its hostility toward the mainland, and in light of the circumstance under which the Taiwan economy was in difficulty, US arms sales to Taiwan were carried out in the form of assistance gratis which continued for as long as 15 years. After the mid-60s when Taiwan's economy took a turn for the better, only then US arms sales to Taiwan were gradually changed into direct official sales.
During the 70s-80s, there was a gradual relaxation in the Chinese-US relationship out of US strategic needs of drawing China into resistance against the Soviet Union, resulting in a reduction in US arms sales from an annual value of over US$800 million to around US$400 million. Another reason for this was that according to the analysis and judgment made by the then US Defense Secretary Brown , first, militarily, it was impossible for China at that time to launch a sea-and-air offensive against the Taiwan region, because the main threat facing the United States came from the Soviet Union. China's armed forces did not have adequate operational aircraft and naval vessels to carry out an amphibious offensive against Taiwan. Second, the military forces of Taiwan itself had possessed fairly large "deterrent capability", and its weaponry and radar command system and electronic interference system were all ahead of China's mainland.
After the break-up of the Soviet Union, the United States began to reduce its strategic demand on China, as indicated by its sale of 150 advanced F-16 fighter planes in 1992, its moves on the Taiwan issue were noticeably escalated. According to available statistics, the value of US arms sales to Taiwan was US$510 million in fiscal year 1990, the figures in fiscal years of 1991 and 1992 were both US$470 million, but in fiscal year 1993, the figure shot up to US$6.62 billion, there was a strong rebound, which later developed to such an extent that the average annual value of US sales of arms to Taiwan exceeded US$2 billion, and all of which were sophisticated weapons. Sometimes, in order to side step the restriction of the China-US August 17 Communique, the United States often provided Taiwan with weaponry and technology cooperation by lease and other forms.
In its incessant arms sales to Taiwan, the United States made full use of ample opportunities of delivery of arms to Taiwan to strengthen training of Taiwan's professionals as well as coordinated training between the United States and Taiwan. According to the stipulation of US Defense Department, countries and regions which purchase weapons from the United States can all send people to the US military academies for training. In line with this stipulation, since the mid-90s, Taiwan military personnel who arrived in the United States to take the navel vessels and aircraft had all received training to different degrees and had even conducted certain coordinated training with US armed forces during their training in the United States or on their way of bringing back navel vessels and aircraft. In 1995 when it rent Nox-grade missile escort vessels from America, Taiwan sent out in succession more than 120 technical personnel to the United States for training; in 1999 when it went to take back Anchorage-grade dock landing boats, Taiwan again sent its naval personnel to the United States who stayed there for more than seven months; each batch of Taiwan personnel who went to bring back aircraft all went through training as well as conducting coordinated flying during their arrival in Taiwan from the United States. In 2000, although the AIM-120 medium-range missiles America sold to Taiwan were temporarily not delivered to Taiwan, it allowed Taiwan military pilots to go to US air force bases or training grounds to conduct trial launch of this type of missiles and related operational training. Currently Taiwan air force has sent a F-16 fighter pilots group to receive training at a US air force base in Arizona State, USA.
Apparently, taking back US weapons sold to Taiwan has become an important means for the United States to give systematic training to Taiwan military professionals and for performance training between America and Taiwan, furthermore, through such form, while Taiwan's military personnel proficiently mastering the performance of US weapons and equipment sold to Taiwan, they have also strengthened coordinated training with US military forces, attaining the aim of finally incorporating Taiwan into the US defense system and realizing the "integration" of US-Taiwan defense.
Moreover, in recent years, the United States has helped Taiwan in setting up a large satellite picture ground receiving station in the northern area and planned to sell to Taiwan a set of LINK-16 data chain to be used in three-link phonetic information and materials for aircraft planes, naval vessels and ground force, so that Taiwan has had a direct link with US Pacific fleet and had a share of information. British Jane's Defense Weekly exposed that in the intelligence center of another Taiwan military base, the US State Security Bureau has helped Taiwan in working out a five-year plan to enhance the latter's intelligence collecting and processing capability and a training program, with the result that information which previously took several hours and even several days to process and to report to the higher level now only takes one minute to complete, this is an omen of US and Taiwan forces developing toward integration of command and information systems.
To sum up, it can be said with certainty that in the future in line with the change in the Taiwan Straits situation and the US strategic needs, the United States will continue to adopt various forms to provide Taiwan with weapons and equipment to "keep Taiwan's needs for necessary defense capacity", and the technological level of which will become increasingly advanced; under certain circumstances, there will even be other forms of military aid. It can be said that so long as the Taiwan issue is not solved, US arms sales to Taiwan military forces will not stop.
Statistics show that in the 21 years from the US publication of the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979 till the end of 2000, there had been 47 armament dealings of US sales of high-properties weapons worth over US$40 billion to Taiwan. In the short 5-6 years from 1994-2000 alone, Taiwan had imported weapons and equipment valued at US$15 billion, representing 11 percent of the total value of the world's arms sales, ranking first in the world.
At present, among the weapons and equipment purchased by the Taiwan authorities, 95 percent came from the United States, so that of Taiwan's 430 aircraft in active service, 60 percent were from the United States, of the 70 most advanced surface navel vessels, 60 percent were purchased or rent from America, and 70 percent of tanks and armored cars were imported from the United States, and most of Taiwan's several thousand missiles came from the said country. The amount of weapons bought in 10 years by Taiwan with a population of 23 million was 40 times that of the mainland; meanwhile, in the past decade, the world produced only 3,000 F-16 phantom fighter planes, one-10th of which were actually bought by the Taiwan authorities. These weapons have, without a doubt, increased the bargaining chips with which the Taiwan authorities refused to hold peace talks with the mainland on reunification, boosted their confidence in rivalry with China's mainland, and reinforced their determination to try to become "an independent political entity", at the same time, might give the "Taiwan independence" forces on the island the misconception that Taiwan already had the strength to rival with the mainland and that by then the United States would dispatch troops to help them. Undoubtedly, under a certain environment inside and outside the Island, this would likely lead the Taiwan authorities to make a reckless move and take a substantive step toward "Taiwan independence", increase the uncertain and dangerous trend of Taiwan political situation, thus making it increasingly difficult to control the situation in the Island. As far as the Taiwan authorities are concerned, although they can maintain the state of separation for sometime by relying on US arms sales, however, they have to pay a high price for this. What a great misfortune this is!
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