Taiwan Relations Act

The White House Wednesday was trying to clarify just why President Bush chose to say, in a series of recent interviews, that the United States would defend Taiwan if it were attacked by China. Condoleezza Rice, Bush's National Security Adviser, told reporters traveling with Bush in Little Rock that the president was following the Taiwan Relations Act, which Congress passed in 1979. The law, Rice said, "makes very clear the United States has an obligation that Taiwan's peaceful way of life is not upset by force.

China warned the United States Thursday that a multi-billion dollar arms sales to Taiwan will create "severe obstacles" between Beijing and Washington, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. "The wrongdoing by the U.S. side will inevitably undermine bilateral relations as well as exchanges and cooperation in military and security areas," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun said, according to Xinhua. Zhang summoned U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke to lodge a protest. The $5.3 billion arms package includes upgrades to Taiwan's F-16 fighter fleet, a five year extension of F-16 pilot training at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and spare parts for the upkeep of three different planes currently in use by the Taiwanese, according to State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Despite protests from China, the White House formally announced Tuesday it was selling a weapons package to Taiwan that includes four Kidd-class destroyers and assistance in buying eight diesel submarines. "It is a package to help Taiwan provide for its defense," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. The sale, details of which had been leaked to reporters last week, angered China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue noted the Chinese government has always opposed U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and said such a move would increase tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.

The government of Taiwan has welcomed President Bush's reiteration of Washington's commitment to defend the island should it ever come under attack. Foreign Minister Eugene Chien said the comments were particularly significant since they were made in Beijing where Bush was concluding a six-day tour of Asia. "This is the first U.S. president in nearly 20 years to mention the Taiwan Relations Act for the first time on the mainland," he told reporters. Earlier, Bush told a question-and-answer session for Chinese students: "When my country makes an agreement we stick with it. " Speaking at Beijing's Tsinghua University he said: "[T]

China is continuing to speak out against a multibillion-dollar U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, with the Chinese foreign minister telling U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Monday that the Obama administration should reconsider the deal. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met with Clinton in New York, where the United Nations General Assembly is in session, according to a senior State Department official who spoke on background. Yang "was making very serious representations to Secretary Clinton, asked the Obama administration to reconsider this decision and indicated that it would harm the trust and confidence that was established between the two sides," the official said.

A high point of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's trip to China last week was a speech at Shanghai's Fudan University. But in modern China, some authoritarian communist habits die hard. After complex negotiation, the Chinese agreed to air the speech live on a local news channel. But they did so with no prior announcement to viewers at an hour when few people were watching. And then, the Website of the communist party's official mouthpiece, the People's Daily, published what it described as the "full text" of Cheney's remarks in which references to politically sensitive topics were changed or deleted.

In a move bound to anger China, the United States intends to sell $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan, the State Department said Friday. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said Congress -- whose approval is needed for the deal to go through -- was notified Friday afternoon. He indicated the administration expects congressional approval quickly. The package includes a variety of U.S.-made weapons systems, including Patriot III anti-missile missiles, Apache attack helicopters, Harpoon missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles.

China has canceled or postponed several military exchanges with the U.S. in reaction to last week's announcement that the U.S. is selling weapons to Taiwan, a Defense Department spokesman said Monday. Officials announced last week an intention to sell $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan, though the deal still needs to be approved by Congress. Maj. Stewart Upton said the sale does not violate the Taiwan Relations Act, which allows the United States to provide Taiwan with items for self-defense Taiwan split from the Chinese mainland in 1949 and the United States has vowed to support them if China initiates an unprovoked attack.

China on Wednesday expressed its "grave concern and strong displeasure" over what the United States said was an accidental shipment of ballistic missile components to Taiwan. China has asked the United States "to thoroughly investigate this incident, and report their findings to the Chinese side in a timely, truthful and detailed manner," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement on the ministry's Web site. "We once again remind the United States to abide by the Sino-U.

Taiwan responded coolly to China's offer to hold military talks, saying that Beijing should offer to remove its military deployment targeting Taiwan. "This is the widespread and solemn demand by Taiwan people," its Mainland Affairs Council said in response to the offer made by Beijing on Wednesday. Taiwan "is an independent country with full sovereignty," said the council, which is a cabinet-level administrative agency. "We must keep our self-defense capability to keep a healthy and stable cross-strait relationship, on the condition that our safety is not threatened," the council said.

As many as 200,000 people -- most of them mainland China-based Taiwanese - are expected to return to Taiwan this weekend for an election viewed as critical to the future of an economy that has boomed thanks to warmer ties with Beijing. Taiwan does not allow absentee voting and the growing political clout of Taiwan's expatriate businessmen -- known as Taishang in Chinese -- will be a determining factor in elections that will set the tenor of the relationship with Beijing. "Because of the closeness of the race, this election has the highest ever number of returnees," says Professor Ray-Kuo Wu of Fu Jen University, adding that estimates could be as high as 250,000 returnees.

China is continuing to speak out against a multibillion-dollar U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, with the Chinese foreign minister telling U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Monday that the Obama administration should reconsider the deal. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met with Clinton in New York, where the United Nations General Assembly is in session, according to a senior State Department official who spoke on background. Yang "was making very serious representations to Secretary Clinton, asked the Obama administration to reconsider this decision and indicated that it would harm the trust and confidence that was established between the two sides," the official said.

China warned the United States Thursday that a multi-billion dollar arms sales to Taiwan will create "severe obstacles" between Beijing and Washington, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. "The wrongdoing by the U.S. side will inevitably undermine bilateral relations as well as exchanges and cooperation in military and security areas," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun said, according to Xinhua. Zhang summoned U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke to lodge a protest. The $5.3 billion arms package includes upgrades to Taiwan's F-16 fighter fleet, a five year extension of F-16 pilot training at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and spare parts for the upkeep of three different planes currently in use by the Taiwanese, according to State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Taiwan responded coolly to China's offer to hold military talks, saying that Beijing should offer to remove its military deployment targeting Taiwan. "This is the widespread and solemn demand by Taiwan people," its Mainland Affairs Council said in response to the offer made by Beijing on Wednesday. Taiwan "is an independent country with full sovereignty," said the council, which is a cabinet-level administrative agency. "We must keep our self-defense capability to keep a healthy and stable cross-strait relationship, on the condition that our safety is not threatened," the council said.

Challenge China's position on Taiwan and watch China go ballistic. When the United States last week announced plans to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan, China fired back with vitriolic anger. It's a "crude interference in China's domestic affairs," said He Yafei, vice minister of foreign affairs. It could "lead to repercussions that neither side wishes to see," he said. The same day, China suspended plans for military exchanges and threatened sanctions on American companies involved in the arms sales.

China has canceled or postponed several military exchanges with the U.S. in reaction to last week's announcement that the U.S. is selling weapons to Taiwan, a Defense Department spokesman said Monday. Officials announced last week an intention to sell $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan, though the deal still needs to be approved by Congress. Maj. Stewart Upton said the sale does not violate the Taiwan Relations Act, which allows the United States to provide Taiwan with items for self-defense Taiwan split from the Chinese mainland in 1949 and the United States has vowed to support them if China initiates an unprovoked attack.

In a move bound to anger China, the United States intends to sell $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan, the State Department said Friday. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said Congress -- whose approval is needed for the deal to go through -- was notified Friday afternoon. He indicated the administration expects congressional approval quickly. The package includes a variety of U.S.-made weapons systems, including Patriot III anti-missile missiles, Apache attack helicopters, Harpoon missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles.

China on Wednesday expressed its "grave concern and strong displeasure" over what the United States said was an accidental shipment of ballistic missile components to Taiwan. China has asked the United States "to thoroughly investigate this incident, and report their findings to the Chinese side in a timely, truthful and detailed manner," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement on the ministry's Web site. "We once again remind the United States to abide by the Sino-U.

China's growing military and its threat to Taiwan will be primary topics of conversation when foreign and defense ministers from the United States and Japan meet Saturday, State Department officials said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will hold talks with their Japanese counterparts at the State Department as part of a regular formal dialogue on the U.S.-Japan Security Alliance, a cornerstone of U.S. national security interests in East Asia.