Beijing anger expected over U.S.-Taiwan arms sales

In this story: Low-key response U.S. to revisit Aegis PRC has 'nothing to fear' RELATED STORIES, SITES

By staff and wire reports

BEIJING, China -- China is tipped to react angrily to the U.S. decision to sell weapons to Taiwan, despite Washington's deferral of the sale of the advanced Aegis naval defense system.

Analysts say the decision to sell submarines to Taiwan will further aggravate the growing diplomatic spat between China and the U.S. in the wake of the 11-day spy plane standoff.

On Monday, the U.S. opted not to sell four $1 billion Arleigh Burke destroyers equipped with the Aegis system to Taiwan and instead to opt for older Kidd-class destroyers.

AUDIO CNN's John King says President Bush has denied Taiwan's request for four Arleigh Burke destroyers equipped with the Aegis radar system. 1.57mb/2:29 mins. AIFF or WAV sound     MESSAGE BOARD China-U.S. relations Taiwan     ALSO Poll shows Americans think less of China after spy plane incident

Still, officials in China have attacked the sale of other weapons to the island as "gross intervention in the internal affairs of China."

Beijing had promised dire consequences if the United States sold the Aegis system to Taiwan.

But it also considers submarines to be offensive weapons and therefore, in its view, not covered by terms of the Taiwan Relations Act that pledges U.S. support for the island democracy's defenses.

"I think there will be some substantive actions and this will come very soon," said Wu Xinbo, a professor at the Fudan University Centre for American Studies in Shanghai.

Wu, who writes on U.S.-China security issues, said China had considered submarines as "red-line" items on Taiwan's defense shopping list, along with the Aegis system and the PAC-3 missile defense system.

Speaking in Washington on Tuesday, the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. Yang Jiechi also expressed "strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition" to Lee's forthcoming visit to his alma mater, Cornell University in New York.

CNN's senior China analyst Willy Lam reports that Beijing is poised to make a strategic shift of its Taiwan policy in the face of Washington's arms sales to Taipei and former president Lee Teng-hui's visit to Japan and the United States.

He says internal Chinese leadership discussions after the spy plane incident with the U.S., Politburo members and their advisers have focused on Bush's alleged new anti-China containment policy.

The arms sales to Taiwan, in addition to Lee's visits to Japan and the U.S., have been cited as examples of joint efforts by Washington and Tokyo to use the Taiwan card to "isolate and contain China."

Low-key response

Meanwhile, Taiwan says it is still in talks with the U.S. to buy weapons, refusing to comment on Washington's decision.

"We have no comment yet. The talks are still ongoing and have not ended," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Chang Siao-yue on Tuesday.

The sale of arms by the U.S. to Taiwan has infuriated China, which considers Taiwan a runaway province.

Despite opting out of a sale of the Aegis-equipped destroyers, U.S. President George W. Bush approved a package of military technology and weapons systems that will, nonetheless, considerably improve Taiwan's naval arsenal.

Kidd-class destroyers were phased out by the U.S. in 1999

A Taiwanese delegation will receive official word of the proposed package Tuesday at the Pentagon. It includes four older, Kidd-class destroyers, diesel submarines, a dozen P-3 "Orion" sub-hunting aircraft, advanced torpedoes and missiles, several White House and congressional sources said.

A senior White House official said the revised package would, in a "measured" way, address a regional military balance that had "tilted in the People's Republic of China's favor in a dangerous way."

U.S. to revisit Aegis

Bush told senior aides he would revisit the Aegis issue in a year or two, and would be inclined to approve such a sale if China continues to add to a 300-strong arsenal of ballistic missiles pointed toward Taiwan.

A senior White House official said the president deferred the decision on the Aegis because there was a consensus among members of the national security team that the Kidd destroyers would quickly upgrade Taiwan's capabilities.

The U.S. has four Kidd-class destroyers -- built in 1981 and 1982, and decommissioned in 1998 and 1999 -- in storage, and could begin transferring them as early as next year, whereas the Aegis destroyers could not have been delivered before 2010.

The Kidd-class destroyers are vastly superior to anything Taiwan has in its existing fleet, and can be designed to counter Chinese submarines and destroyers. They are fitted to use Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Standard anti-aircraft missiles and anti-submarine torpedoes.

The ships carry radar developed in the 80s designed to track down and destroy attacking enemy cruise missiles that skim the surface of the sea. They each carry a crew of 370 and are capable of speeds exceeding 30 knots.

But they are not of the standard of the destroyers equipped with the advanced Aegis system -- also fitted to Japanese Kongo-class destroyers -- which can conduct warfare in air, land and sea while tracking more than 100 separate objects simultaneously.

China is said to believe Taiwan would seek to use the system in coordination with Japan and the U.S. to create a more effective shield against its missiles.

U.S. officials say China is adding roughly 50 short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles per year to its current arsenal of about 300. The White House official described a carrot-and-stick approach, under which Bush would revisit the issue if the Chinese missile buildup continues.

PRC has 'nothing to fear'

The senior White House official called the package "balanced" and said, "there is nothing in this package for the PRC to fear."

Still, the official said U.S. officials thought it necessary to take significant steps to improve Taiwan's security because of an imbalance "caused by the PRC" and its recent military buildup.

The official said the hope was a stronger Taiwan would encourage Taipei and Beijing to resume a "positive cross-straits dialogue."

The decision-making process on the requested sale of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers put the White House in an awkward and sensitive position because of the current strained relations with Beijing following the collision of a U.S. reconnaissance plane and a Chinese fighter jet.

China is still in possession of the U.S. Navy EP-3E surveillance aircraft that collided with a Chinese F-8 jet fighter off Hainan Island at the beginning of this month. The Chinese jet broke up and the pilot is presumed dead.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Taiwan Government
Taiwan's Defense Ministry
The White House
China's Foreign Ministry

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