Asia: Facing Down the Bully - US relations with Taiwan, China - Brief Article

National Review, April 16, 2001

Is the Bush administration willing to face down the bully-boy of Asia? Following China's buildup of ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan, the government of the island nation has asked to buy four destroyers of the Arleigh Burke class (like the U.S.S. Cole, attacked by terrorists in Aden last year) equipped with the sophisticated Aegis missile-tracking system. China's vice prime minister, Qian Qichen, visiting Washington, thundered that such a sale would be a "very serious setback" to U.S.- China relations and might ignite "the flame of war." His boss, President Jiang Zemin, took a somewhat milder line, saying that the sales might force China to accelerate modernization of her armed forces.

There are a number of things that need to be said by the administration, not necessarily in public. The first is that the Aegis- equipped destroyers are primarily defensive, and that nobody-not even the Beijing government-claims that Taiwan has any aggressive intentions towards China, nor indeed towards anyone else. To which of the following is talk about igniting "the flame of war" more appropriate: the placing of several hundred attack missiles opposite Taiwan in a display of naked intimidation, or Taiwan's attempt to give herself some fair warning of those missiles' launch times and flight paths?

Another thing that ought to be said is that no nation busily engaged in selling advanced chemical, nuclear, and missile technology to unstable, nuclear-armed, or nuclear-seeking nations like Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan has any business criticizing the sale of defensive equipment to Taiwan.

For a generation, the American position toward Taiwan has been an ambiguous compromise: recognizing neither China's claim to the island nor Taiwan's independence. And America's unambiguous commitment has been that, however the question of Taiwan's relationship with China is resolved, it must be resolved peacefully. That policy has been successful in keeping the peace. For it to continue to succeed, America must help Taiwan defend herself-and resist any attempts by China to assert a veto over American efforts to do so.

Robert Karniol, Asia-Pacific editor of Jane's Defense Weekly, has said that he doubts the administration will infuriate Beijing by selling the Arleigh Burkes to Taiwan, because: "I don't think they have the guts." On the evidence so far from other policy areas, the new administration is, in fact, not short of guts. Do they have enough to stand up to the threats and bluster of Beijing? We very much hope so.