- Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
- U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen (L) and China’s Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army General Chen Bingde shake hands after holding a joint press conference at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, May 18, 2011.
- Wally Santana/Associated Press
- n this Friday, Oct. 22, 2004, file photo, Taiwanese soldiers stand in front of one of Taiwan’s Patriot missile air defense systems on the northern coastal town of Wanli, Taiwan.
Over the past 60 years, China and Taiwan have hurled threats across the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait. But China’s People’s Liberation Army Chief of General Staff Chen Bingde found a new way to get Taiwan’s goat: downplay China’s threat to Taiwan.
At the first high-level military dialogue between the U.S. and China since military contact was derailed following the sale of $6 billion worth of weapons to Taiwan in January 2010, Gen. Chen denied that China had any missiles across from Taiwan, saying, “I can tell you here, responsibly, that we only have garrison deployment across from Taiwan and we do not have operational deployment, much less missiles stationed there.”
Experts and Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense say China has more than 1,000 missiles targeted at Taiwan. While many of the missiles may not be “across from Taiwan,” they’re awfully close, as Mark Stokes, executive director of think tank Project 2049 Institute thoroughly chronicles in a recent blog post.
Taiwan’s top brass responded in kind, with Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu calling Gen. Chen’s statement “far from the truth.” He added, “In actuality China has been continuously increasing the number of missiles it has deployed along the coast.”
And lest anyone interpret Gen. Chen’s comments as an indication of an actual softening of China’s stance on Taiwan, the military leader also stressed that China’s position on the island hasn’t changed, and that further arms sales to Taiwan could impact U.S.-China relations.
In Taiwan’s legislature on Thursday, Lin Yu-fang, a legislator and senior member of Taiwan’s national defense committee, said Gen. Chen was “lying through his teeth.” But in an interview Friday with China Real Time, he said despite Gen. Chen’s tougher statements about the impact Taiwan arms sales have on Sino-U.S. relations, it might be possible for China and the U.S. to broker an agreement to ensure they can maintain military relations as the U.S. continues to sell weapons to Taiwan.
“Gen. Chen’s trip to the U.S. has attracted much domestic Chinese attention, so he has to say something very tough on the Taiwan issue, to appease the many nationalists there,” he said.
He added that it would be also be a significant loss of face for a Chinese representative not to bring up the matter: “The PRC (People’s Republic of China) has kept saying Taiwan is a part of China, and the U.S. has ignored the PRC and sold weapons systems…it’s kind of a humiliation to the PRC, they have to at least do something to protest.”
But Mr. Lin said it was possible the two sides might come to a “tacit understanding” to maintain a military relationship while the U.S. sells some weapons to Taiwan. He added that could mean the U.S. would delay the sale of some weapons systems like diesel submarines or new F-16 C/Ds, both of which Taiwan covets. Still, he balked at Mr. Chen’s statement that some members of U.S. congress would consider reviewing the Taiwan Relations Act, which requires the U.S. to sell defensive weapons to Taiwan.
“There could be compromise in terms of the items sold, but if it’s a compromise in terms of no more sales to Taiwan, that’s impossible….that would change the balance of power in East Asia and is not in America’s interest,” he said.
–Paul Mozur
