DTN News - TAIWAN DEFENSE NEWS: US Raises Hope Of Sale Of New F-16 Fighter Jets To Taiwan
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 28, 2012: The Obama administration will give “serious consideration” to selling Taiwan new Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) (LMT) F-16 fighter jets, a White House official said, creating a potential new flashpoint with China ahead of next week’s high- level meetings between U.S. and Chinese officials.
A jet sale “warrants serious consideration given the growing military threat to Taiwan,” Robert Nabors, the White House’s director of legislative affairs, said in a letter yesterday to Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican.
The comments risk spawning a political clash with China as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner prepare to meet their Chinese counterparts in Beijing next week for annual talks. China, which insists that Taiwan be reunited with the mainland by force if necessary, has cut military contacts with the U.S. in the past over American arms sales to the island.
“This is going to cause huge problems for the Chinese,” Bonnie Glaser, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in an interview. The tension may be compounded if a human-rights group’s speculation bears out that an activist who escaped house arrest in eastern China this week is holed up at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, she said.
New F-16 C/D fighters would replace aging F-5 jets and supplement a refurbishment program for Taiwan’s F-16 A/Bs that President Barack Obama’s administration announced in September.
