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Taiwan Rejects China Proposal for Missile Withdrawal
Taiwan rejected a Chinese proposal today that it cease purchasing advanced weaponry from the United States in exchange for China withdrawing hundreds of ballistic missiles aimed at the island, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 3). “(This) is intended to reduce or even cut off U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, tipping the military balance in favor of communist China,” Taiwan’s Defense Ministry spokesman Huang Suey-sheng said. Taiwan’s government spokesman, Chen Chi-mai, said yesterday that China’s arms buildup threatens Taiwan. “China’s military spending has risen at a double-digit rate each year. ... Their military spending last year amounted to between $50 billion and $70 billion,” Chen said. Taiwan’s cabinet has approved a special military draft budget of $18.2 billion over 15 years beginning in 2005, according to Agence France-Presse. The funds would be earmarked for eight submarines, a modified version of the Patriot antimissile system and a fleet of antisubmarine aircraft (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 8). Meanwhile, the U.S. Defense Department stated last month that the growth of China’s ballistic missile inventory would enable Beijing to launch a devastating attack on Taiwanese infrastructure, Aviation Week reported. “China most likely will be able to cause significant damage to all of Taiwan’s airfields and quickly degrade Taiwan’s ground-based air defenses and associated command and control through a combination of SRBMs, land-attack cruise missiles, special operations forces and other assets,” according to an annual Pentagon report on Chinese military developments. The report highlighted the growth in China’s short-range ballistic missile inventory last year by 50 missiles, bringing its estimated total to 500 (Robert Wall, Aviation Week, June 7).
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