Sec. Defense says Taiwan could be less "Hot-button"

Taiwan Could be Less Hot-Button Issue in Future, Gates Says

By Jim Garamone 
American Forces Press Service
BEIJING, Jan. 11, 2011 - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates believes that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan may evolve into a less hot-button issue in U.S.-China relations.

The secretary expressed his opinion about Taiwan during a roundtable discussion with reporters here today. 

The United States sold defensive weapons to Taiwan last year, and the People's Republic of China suspended all military-to-military contacts with America in response. Gates is here this week, in part, to re-start those contacts. 

Chinese officials, Gates said, didn't say directly that they would again suspend military-to-military contacts if the United States sold weapons to Taiwan again, but it was clear that they consider such sales against their core interests. 

Gates, who worked in the White House when President Richard M. Nixon made his historic trip to China in 1972, said he made the American policy clear to his Chinese counterparts. "First of all, we do have a One China Policy. We do consider the policy to be based on the three Joint Communiqués and –- I always add –- the Taiwan Relations Act," he said. 

The Three Communiqués were signed in 1972, 1979 and 1982. 

Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979, and it is a law and not a policy, Gates said. The law requires the United States to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons and "to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan." 

Gates stressed that the United States does not support independence for Taiwan. He said both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama "have been certainly cognizant of Chinese sensitivities and I believe the decisions that have been made have focused on defensive capabilities." 

Gates told Chinese leaders that the United States is not going to change its policies. 

"But over time, if the environment changed and if the relationship between China and Taiwan continued to improve, and the security environment for Taiwan changed, then perhaps that would create the conditions for re-examining all of this," the secretary said. "But that would be an evolutionary and long-term process, it seems to me. I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. 

"They made their point and I made mine," he said.

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

China developing military

China has announced that they are indeed investing heavily in their military.

They have developed a stealth fighter they call J-20. This aircraft has been designed and built by
the Chinese from the drawing board, and not  using technology that has been gathered from other
nation's planes.

While at the present it is not on a par with U.S. or Russian fighter/bombers and needs much work
to bring it even close to our planes. Some have said it will take 10 or 15 years to reach that level.

Still it is a frightening thought that China is progressing as quickly as they are.

China also has announced that it has developed an anti-ship ballistic missile designed to target
aircraft carriers is now operational.

The land based, and mobile missile, called Dongfeng 21 D is designed to attack aircraft carrier groups
with the help of satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV) and come at them from high
altitudes.

Although the U.S. has not seen an over the water test of the new missile, it combined with China's
increased anti-access area denial capabilities, such as submarines, long range anti-ship cruise
missiles, anti-ship aircraft, are causing great concern; not only in the U.S. but also in neighboring
countries.

Japan and Taiwan  are sure to be thinking long as well as short range possibilities. The recent
buildup of China's military is almost like telling the U.S. that China is a force to be reckoned
with, and will do what they feel necessary.

How far will China go? What will be the next step?

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996