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Taiwan Arms Sales: Less Than Meets the Eye
After more than seven years of waiting, there is reason to celebrate the final approval of a $6.4 billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. Unfortunately, there is less to this package than meets the eye. Rather than addressing Taipei's deteriorating military balance against China's rapidly modernizing and expanding forces, these approvals provide gasps of new oxygen to Taiwan's aging defenses, which were starved of air initially by domestic politics and then, for the last year, by Washington's concern about Beijing's ire.
Taiwan's Defense Hobbled by U.S. Arms "Freeze
The word is sweeping Washington -- or at least the Taiwan-watchers in Washington (including those in the Chinese embassy) -- that the Bush Administration is continuing its "freeze" of eight major defense packages necessary to Taiwan's security. President Bush's failure to submit congressional notifications for the multibillion-dollar Taiwanese arms tranche raises the prospect that he is washing his hands of Taiwan's security concerns.
China: Wealthy State, Strong Army -- and a Powerful Party
For over a decade, China's industrial and military strength has expanded with breathtaking speed. As one economist succinctly noted, China's economic growth "is losing its capacity to shock . . . however astonishing it would be elsewhere."[1]
International Recognition of Taiwan's "Unsettled" Status
Taiwan's "Unsettled" International Status
By John J. Tkacik, Jr.
National Taiwan Chengchi University
September 6, 2008
Georgia: Olympic Invasion: China, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Russia's Aggression
Friday, August 8, was the holiest day in China's 2008 calendar. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush were in Beijing (along with 54 other heads of state and 15 prime ministers) to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. Russia also invaded Georgia that day. China shrugged off the Russian desecration of the sacred date, but the invasion sent shudders through Russia's former Soviet republics.
Beijing's Olympic Message: China Will Do What It Wants
The blazing pageantry of the Beijing Olympics -- the most spectacular Olympian celebration in over 70 years -- is rightfully being heralded as the symbol of China' arrival as a global power. The bright Olympic spotlight showed the world a Chinese communist regime that is secure in its power, even if not in its legitimacy. While China cared deeply about the impression it made during its time in the international limelight (cared to the tune of $44 billion) such concern does not extend outside the Olympic venues.
The China Delusion
by Thaddeus McCotter and John Tkacik
On Thursday, August 7, President George W. Bush spoke in Bangkok, Thailand about his vision for China's future. "Change in China will arrive on its own terms and in keeping with its own history and its own traditions," the president predicted. He pronounced, "Yet change will arrive."
Mongolia's Current Political Situation: Implications for the OSCE
I know that the members of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe are serious observers of Eurasian events and that you are concerned about the direction of Mongolia's democracy after the June 29, 2008, parliamentary election. I, too, am concerned. Mongolia was once thought of as a vast but isolated Central Asian desert with little relevance to the strategic interests of metropolitan Europe or East Asia. And, indeed, as recently as a quarter-century ago, that was a valid view.
Bush administration decision weakens Taiwan's position
by John Tkacik, Jr. , Gary Schmitt '
Not long after becoming president in 2001, George Bush said he would do "anything it takes to help Taiwan defend herself." But when he leaves office in January, he will have created a situation that seriously undermines that pledge.
The Bush administration had blocked nearly $16 billion in U.S. arms transfers to Taiwan.
Tkacik says Arms Sale Freeze Violated Taiwan Relations Act
Tkacik says Arms Sale Freeze Violated Taiwan Relations Act
071808 - 譚慎格：美凍結對台軍售 違反台灣關係法
2008-07-18
華府兩岸問題專家譚慎格今天發表專文指出，美國政府凍結對台灣的防衛性武器軍售，違反國會通過的台灣關係法，且軍售決策必須基於「台灣的需要」、而非「中國對美國的外交壓力」。他也質疑，台灣正與中國協商，需充分的軍事力量做後盾，布希政府卻在此刻凍結對台軍售。
美國太平洋軍區司令吉亭上將昨天應邀在華府著名保守智庫「傳統基金會」演說。吉亭「證實」了美國行政部門當前確有「凍結」對台軍售，但吉亭也說，他不能替國務院或白宮國安會闡述這個政策。
吉亭還說，美國不會做任何破壞台海穩定的行動，他相信，做出決策的美國官員有整體考量了台灣與中國當前軍力現況與戰略，從而認為當前沒有出售武器給台灣的迫切性與強制性。
傳統基金會學者譚慎格今天上午立即發表一篇文章，對吉亭的說法有所批判。他說，布希政府的確凍結對台軍售，而台灣與不民主的中國正在進行重要協商程序以降低台灣海峽緊張的時刻，美國卻選在這個時刻凍結對台軍售。
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