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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (7953)	4/23/2001 7:21:14 AM
From: John Carragher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 59480

Aegis Sale to Taiwan Is Likely to Be Tied To Chinese Cutback of Missiles in Region By GREG JAFFE Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASHINGTON -- As the Bush administration considers arms sales to Taiwan, a leading option would defer selling Aegis-equipped destroyers and make any future Aegis sale to Taiwan dependent on whether or not China cuts back the number of missiles pointed at the island, said a senior U.S. official familiar with the deliberations. U.S. officials Tuesday will give a delegation from Taiwan a list of arms that the U.S. will sell the island this year. Administration officials said that as of Sunday night President Bush hadn't made a final decision on the possible sale to Taiwan of destroyers equipped with the sophisticated Aegis air-defense and battle-management system, which China strongly opposes. A leading option favored by Pentagon officials would tie the sale to the recent buildup of Chinese missiles on the Taiwan Strait. If China reduces the number of short-range ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan during a two-year period, the Bush administration wouldn't sell the Aegis-equipped ships to Taiwan, said the U.S. official familiar with the deliberations. It wasn't clear what level of reductions would be required to halt the Aegis sale. Should China maintain the status quo or increase the number of ballistic missiles on the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. would sell Taiwan four of the $1.2 billion destroyers, this official said. China currently has about 300 short-range ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan and has been adding to the missiles on the Taiwan Strait at a rate of about 50 a year, said defense officials. "The idea has always been to find a way to put the onus on the Chinese" concerning a possible Aegis sale to Taiwan, said the official familiar with the deliberations. "They could take action to preclude or guarantee a future sale." Over the past several days the Bush administration has been wrestling with how best to handle the Aegis matter, defense officials said. Other items on Taipei's annual arms wish list, however, have the strong support of the Pentagon, such as the sale of 12 P-3 planes and four Kidd class destroyers. The P-3 surveillance planes, also known as subhunters, are used to track the movement of submarines. The Kidd class destroyers, which were built for the Shah of Iran in the late 1970s but were never delivered, would be equipped with an upgraded fleet-defense radar system and could be delivered to Taiwan in the next 24 to 36 months at a cost of about $185 million a ship. Beijing strongly opposes the sale of Aegis-equipped destroyers to Taiwan because it fears the U.S. could link the ships into a regional missile-defense network. U.S. officials discount such a possibility, saying that the U.S. is still years away from developing a missile-defense system capable of defending its own troops. Each year, the U.S. makes a decision on what defensive weapons to sell to Taiwan. The event took on added prominence this year even before the collision of the U.S. EP-3 surveillance plane with a Chinese fighter jet earlier this month. The sale was widely seen as the first clear sign of how the Bush administration would handle its relationship with China. The arms-sale issue has deeply divided the Republican Party and several of Mr. Bush's advisers, with some conservatives urging him to confront what they view as a rising Chinese threat, while others argue for a course of diplomatic engagement. The EP-3 collision and China's refusal to turn over the crew until it received an apology for the incident only drew more attention to the sale. China released the crew after 11 days, though it is still holding the damaged U.S. plane. The Aegis sale-deferral option being considered offers a middle ground between the hard-liners in the Republican Party and the course charted by the Clinton administration. Even without the Aegis ships, this year's sale will likely be the biggest since President Bush's father agreed to sell a large number of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan in 1992 and includes many items that are sure to rile Beijing, including the P-3 subhunter aircraft. Selling Kidd-class destroyers to Taiwan instead of the Aegis system also represents a compromise. The Aegis system is capable of countering a larger number of antiship missiles than the less sophisticated Kidd class destroyers. A second major difference between the two systems has to do with their ability to be adapted at some point in the future to carry out theater ballistic-missile defense. When the U.S. Navy does develop theater missile programs, defense officials say, they will be based on the Aegis system. Write to Greg Jaffe at greg.jaffe@wsj.com