US lawmakers press on Taiwan arms sales

November 21, 2009 09:33:37 AM

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Supporters of Taiwan in the US Congress on Friday pushed for President Barack Obama to move toward selling arms to the island, a step that would almost certainly anger China.

Obama sought warmer relations with China on his maiden visit this week and is widely seen as reluctant to act soon on Taiwan's request to buy F-16 fighter-jets, which the island says it needs to modernize its aging fleet.

A bill sponsored by eight supporters of Taiwan in the House of Representatives would require the Obama administration to explain to Congress its plans on defense cooperation with Taiwan.

If approved, the bill would require Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to provide "detailed briefings" to Congress on the issue within 90 days.

The measure was led by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She was joined by four Republicans and three lawmakers from Obama's Democratic Party.

A Republican congressman, Joe Barton, introduced a separate bill that would call on the United States to make a decision "based solely" on Taiwan's defense needs.

Beijing considers Taiwan, where nationalists fled in 1949 after losing the mainland's civil war to the communists, to be a province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

The United States in 1979 switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing. Obama reiterated on his visit that the United States believed there was only one China.

Congress, long Washington's hotbed of support for Taiwan, responded to the switch 30 years ago by approving the Taiwan Relations Act that requires the United States to provide the island with weapons of a defensive nature.

China angrily denounces such arms sales. It cut off military exchanges with the United States for months after the George W. Bush administration in October 2008 unveiled a 6.5-billion-dollar arms package for Taiwan, which included Patriot missile defenses and Apache attack helicopters but not F-16s.

Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou, despite a conciliatory stance toward Beijing, has appealed to the United States for weapons, saying the island must stay on guard in light of the mainland's sharp rise in military spending.