Arms Sales to Taiwan Steady the Asia-Pacific Area

Knowing America needs China’s help to solve various tough problems, Obama still insists on arms sales to Taiwan, which casts a thick cloud over Sino-U.S. relations. This has dealt a heavy blow to those who believe that “Sino-U.S. relations are on their best terms,” or “Sino-U.S. relations are getting better and better.” Why is this happening?

One of the reasons is that the international political center gradually shifted from Europe to Asia after the Cold War. A second reason is that America has always seen China as a potential rival. Therefore, after the Cold War, America gave Taiwan a new function in U.S. international strategy — that is, curbing China’s power and making sure America still has the upper hand in Asia. This upper hand was seen as one of the core national interests of the U.S., going incompatibly against China’s core interest, which is maintaining her sovereignty and territorial integrity. Now that China is rising quickly, America’s allies and the rest of the Asian countries are observing the Sino-U.S. relations from the sidelines, and their future course will be largely influenced by what kind of stand America will take in Asia — strong or soft, forging on or withdrawing. Therefore, the sale of arms to Taiwan directly affects America’s long-term strategy in Asia, shows the future direction of America’s Asian strategy and helps to maintain its controlling power in Asia. This explains why America never gave up its arms sales to Taiwan, no matter who became president, nor how good or bad people think Sino-U.S. relations are.

During the Cold War, China and America were united in the fight against the Soviet Union. But in this kind of combination, America and China were not at the same level in terms of national strength, and they had different objectives. Usually, if there were to be a divergence in such a combo, the weaker half would be the one to make a compromise. Establishing diplomatic relations with America without solving the Taiwan issue was not actually a bad idea considering the tough situation at that time, so there’s nothing to criticize. From America’s strong stand on the Taiwan arms sales, we can deduce what will make them give up: Only if they are facing more challenging enemies than the Soviet Union and hence need the help of China will they begin thinking about giving up the sale of arms seriously. But America cherishes its reputation and its obligation to its allies like Taiwan, and it wouldn’t turn its back on them if it had a choice.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the end of the Cold War, America was the only superpower left in the world. They have held fast to the upper hand they’ve gained before during difficult times and, furthermore, pose threats to China in the areas of human rights, Tibetan issues and separatism in Xinjiang. At first, the description in the Taiwan Relations Act was “to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States.” But this kind of ambiguity was well cleared up during the Bush Administration. When answering the question of ABC reporter Charles Gibson in 2001, Bush’s attitude was that the “full force of the U.S. military would be used to protect Taiwan.”* During the Cold War, however, America did not dare to say any such thing.

To force America to give up the arms sales to Taiwan is not impossible, but the question is: What do we have to bargain with them? America needs China’s help on anti-terrorism and the financial crisis, and on the issues in North Korea, Iran and Afghanistan. Though China’s efforts on helping the Americans regarding these issues also benefit China, America has no gratitude and couldn’t care less. Even if China does everything against America, so what? The damage is nothing compared to what the Soviet Union was capable of doing.

Moreover, China and America both have nuclear weapons, and their thinking is more or less alike, which is considering using the nuke even before a normal war could begin. If both sides played out all their cards, things would turn ridiculous — it would be like two sides losing their 5-star plazas just for a grocery store. With this unpromising future on the Taiwan issue, the two nations can only keep everything as it stands at present, and put on an air about the unimportant things, like military exchange.

* Editor’s note: In the interview, Gibson asked Bush if the U.S. would defend Taiwan “with the full force of [the] American military.” Bush replied, “Whatever it took to help Taiwan defend theirself[sic].”