Never Fear, Taiwan — Congress is Here

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Jun 17, 2011, 4:11:02 PM6/17/11

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Thanks to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen for holding the first full committee hearing on Taiwan.

Speaking Thursday at the first full committee hearing of the House of Representative’s Committee on Foreign Relations specifically about Taiwan in seven years, the Republican chairman of the committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen noted a “new spirit of appeasement in the air” as she argued the U.S. must not back down from its relationship with Taiwan due to pressure from China, and that it should support the island with the sale of new F-16s and upgrades to its existing planes.

Congress is among the world’s most stalwart supporters of Taiwan, and has refused to back down in the face of recently shifting political winds. Last month, 45 members of the Senate, representing both sides of the aisle, signed a letter to President Barack Obama urging the administration to sell Taiwan the weapons it has requested.

In addition to reiterating the weapons request, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen also said Thursday that she would push for new legislation to update the Taiwan Relations Act. The act, passed in 1979, requires the U.S. to sell weapons to Taiwan necessary for its defense.

June 17, 2011, 7:48 PM HKT

Never Fear, Taiwan — Congress is Here

Richard Chung/Reuters

A U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air missile is launched during a military exercise in Ilan county, in this July 20, 2006 file photo.

With the Obama administration keeping quiet on what the U.S. should do about weapons sales to Taiwan and a growing number of influential figures calling for a rethink of the U.S. relationship with the island, Taipei could be forgiven for wondering whether it has any allies left in the big country across the pond.

The message from U.S. Congress: We’re still here.

Although the specific details of any new legislation remained unclear, a witness who spoke at the hearing, U.S.-Taiwan Business Council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers, told China Real Time that he understood it would be designed to more specifically address Taiwan’s defensive needs and increase the oversight Congress has on the U.S.-Taiwan relationship.

Speaking at the hearing, four expert witnesses argued that F-16s, although unlikely to tilt the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait, were critical to demonstrating the U.S. commitment to Taiwan’s defense and would also be highly useful in the event of a naval blockade or spats that could break out over neighboring islands.

Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou has made repeated calls for the release of the planes along with other weapons, even as Taiwan’s Defense Ministry announced last week it was cutting the budget it set aside to purchase new F-16s.

One witness at the hearing, Armitage International partner Randy Schriver, warned about the “growing influence” of China in U.S. decision making and said it was “absurd” to think China would change its position on key issues like Iran, North Korea or the appreciation of the yuan based on a changed U.S. stance towards Taiwan.

He also questioned concerns voiced within the Obama administration about timing weapons sales correctly: “There’s no right time…these things get backed up and backed up, and then the Chinese are looking at a much larger package. They (the administration) need to just, there’s not a better way to say it, they need to be bolder and more courageous and deal with the fallout, because historical evidence suggests we can absorb the fallout.”

The meeting was also notable for the lack of any State Department representatives. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Derek Mitchell, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, were originally scheduled to testify, but did not attend due to a scheduling conflict, according to a person familiar with the matter. Rep. Dan Burton called the no-show disappointing and said it represented “an absence of concern that is remarkable,” adding: “I think they were afraid because they don’t have the answers.”

With the last F-16s scheduled to roll off the production line in 2013, Mr. Hammond-Chambers warned that new orders might need to come in as early as the end of 2011. Otherwise, he said, the production line might be shut down completely – an outcome, others have pointed out, that would cost the U.S. much needed jobs and lead to even trickier negotiations over the sale of more advanced fighters.

Although he said the potential shutdown of the F-16 line should not dictate whether or not to sell the weapons, Mr. Hammond-Chambers argued it forced a tight timeline on the decision. “It is a consideration for when you make the decision to sell,” he said. “If you leave it too long, the decision is made for you.”

“At what point do you ask whether the administration is violating the Taiwan Relations Act,” he continued. “Only Congress can step in and do something about that.”