Tsai, seeking tanks and fighters, says US responding positively

WASHINGTON: Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said the United States was responding positively to Taipei’s requests for new arms sales to bolster its defences in the face of growing pressure from China.

Speaking during a stopover in Hawaii at the end of a Pacific tour, Tsai told Washington’s Heritage Foundation think tank via videolink that Taiwan had submitted new requests to the United States for M-1 Abrams tanks and F-16V fighter jets.

These, she said, “would greatly enhance our land and air capabilities, strengthen military morale and show to the world the US commitment to Taiwan’s defence.”

The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help provide it with the means to defend itself and is its main source of arms.

On Sunday, Washington sent Navy and Coast Guard ships through the narrow strait separating the island from the mainland, part of an increase in the frequency of US movement through the strategic waterway to show support for Taipei.

Tsai said mounting pressure from China for Taiwan to accept a “one country, two systems model” and its attempts to alter the cross-straits status quo underscored the need for Taiwan to “increase our self defence and deterrence capabilities.”

“Fortunately Taiwan does not stand alone,” she said.

“The United States’ commitment to Taiwan is stronger than ever.”

Tsai said she felt the process of US arms sales to Taiwan had become less politicised, adding: “We are able to have frank discussions with the US on the right equipment for Taiwan’s defence and the US is responding positively to our request.”

She said big-ticket defence items would be managed though a special budget and Taiwan’s regular defence budget would “increase based on challenges coming across the strait.”

Tsai’s Pacific tour has come amid heightened tension between Taipei and Beijing, which has stepped up diplomatic and military pressure to assert its sovereignty over Taiwan. China suspects Tsai and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party of pushing for the island’s formal independence.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in January that Beijing reserved the right to use force to bring Taiwan under its control, but would strive to achieve peaceful ‘reunification.’

Beijing has regularly sent military aircraft and ships to circle the island on drills in the past few years and has heaped pressure on Taiwan internationally, including whittling by down its few remaining diplomatic allies.

Tsai stressed that Taiwan sought positive relations with Beijing, but China needed to talk without preconditions. — AFP