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US Moving to Make Arms Sales to Taiwan More Routine

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI - A U.S. government arms sale to Taiwan often starts with a
   quiet request from Taipei, which wants new weapons for its defense
   against the stronger China. Then the U.S. Department of Defense
   deliberates for months or more whether to recommend the sale to
   Congress. This process has no set schedule, frustrating for Taiwan, and
   China fumes at any approved sales.

   Now a U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Asia has a proposal to
   end this cycle of suspense and anger over arms sales that dates back
   some four decades. Some analysts say the new scheme is already in
   motion.

   Washington will "treat Taiwan as a normal security systems partner,"
   Asia-Pacific Assistant Secretary Randall Schriver told a Heritage
   Foundation think tank event in June. That means arms sales could become
   more routine, eliminating suspense that hangs over Taiwan and China
   during the waits.

   "Routinizing U.S. arms sales to Taiwan would mean selling arms to
   Taiwan when needed, when approved and ready, and not holding them to
   sell all at once at a time thought less likely to offend Beijing," said
   Sean King, vice president of Park Strategies political consultancy in
   New York.

   "In other words, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan wouldn't be held political
   hostage to the constant ebbs and flows in U.S.-PRC [People's Republic
   of China] relations," he said.

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