Taiwan to lease AV-8B fighters from US, US-China antagonism heats up, Tang, Wolfowitz meet

BODY: Taiwan plans to lease at least 30 AV-8B Sea Harrier II fighters from the United States to enhance the survival capability of the island's air force, it was reported Monday.

Hopefully the AV-8Bs, with their vertical take-off capability, would help the island preserve part of its fighter force should a war break out with rival China, the United Daily News said.

Military experts have generally agreed China would try to paralise the island by intensively bombing airports, bunkers and other military installations. China has at least 300 ballistic missiles along its southeast coast trained on Taiwan. The island's defence ministry expects the number to reach 800 by 2006.

The paper said Taiwan initially could lease 30 AV-8Bs now serving the US Marines and eventually up to 100 aircraft.

The first 30 AV-8Bs could be stationed in the central Chingchuankang air base, it said.

The paper said Boeing Co. is helping arrange the proposed arms deal which came after a two-year US review of Taiwan's air force and navy.

Beijing has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan if it declares independence after their split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

Washington switched its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but has since remained the leading arms supplier to democratic Taiwan.

Washington announced in April 2001 the most comprehensive arms package to Taipei since 1992, including four Kidd-class destroyers, eight diesel submarines and 12 P-3C submarine-hunting aircraft.

Taiwan defense minister Tang Yao-ming travelled to Florida over the weekend in a landmark US visit despite Beijing's fury. He is attending an arms conference, sponsored by top US defense companies.

Beijing is especially angry over the Florida conference as Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a hawk on China matters, and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs James Kelly will be there and are likely to meet Tang.

BODY: US and Taiwan military experts and officials Sunday checked into a luxury Florida resort for an arms conference which has sparked outrage in Beijing, mostly due to the planned attendance of the nationalist island's defence minister.

Minister Tang Yao-ming's visit to the conference, sponsored by top US defense companies has already cracked the veneer of cordiality which both sides applied to deeply divisive issues during President George W. Bush's talks in Beijing last month.

China has reacted furiously, calling in the US ambassador to Beijing Clark Randt for a dressing down, and branding the trip as an "open violation" of Sino-US agreements certain to damage Washington-Beijing and cross-Straits relations.

The United States hit back by saying Tang was travelling to the conference in St. Petersburg, Florida in a purely private capacity, and was not on official business. The meeting comes after China last week signalled a 17 percent rise in its defense budget -- a move which triggered disquiet in Taipei, and more suspicion among sectors of the US military establishment which view China as a looming threat to US interests.

China has at least 300 ballistic missiles along its southeast coast trained on Taiwan. The island's defence ministry expects the number to reach 800 by 2006.

Taiwan and China separated in 1949 following a civil war and Beijing has threatened to use force to reclaim the island should it declare independence.

But US officials say China is wrong to be so concerned and that no US-China conventions are being breached by Tang's presence at the "United States Taiwan Defense Summit 2002" which is organised by the US-Taiwan Business Council.

"All visits to China by Taiwanese officials are by definition private, as we don't have any diplomatic relations with Taiwan," said a State Department official on condition of anonymity, with a carefully worded statement unlikely to appease Beijing.

And another senior official said Friday he "wouldn't be surprised" if there was a Kelly-Tang meeting.

Nevertheless, Tang's presence at the conference is a clear sign of the Bush administration's expansion of previously strict rules governing visits by Taiwanese officials to the United States.

He will be the first Taiwanese defense minister allowed to take part in such a meeting, although some of his predecessors, and other top Taipei officials have made frequent transit stops in the United States.

Bush, who has publicly backed Beijing's 'One China' policy, has tweaked Beijing's ire over Taiwan several times, declaring he would do "whatever it takes" to defend the island and signing off on a substantial arms package.

Delegates at the summit, which eases off on Sunday afternoon with a round of golf on the pristine Rennaissance Vinoy resort course, include members of the de facto US embassy in Taiwan, the American Institute.

Members of the US armed services, Taiwan's top representative in Washington C.J. Chen, and reps from top US arms firms will also sit down with high ranking officials from the State and Defense departments to discuss Taiwan's defense procurement needs.

The high-powered conference is sponsored by Bell Helicopter, Boeing, General Dynamics, Honeywell, Lockhead Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Sikorsky.

Taiwanese officials in Washington say that the meetings will permit Tang to talk through requirements Taiwan has years into the the 21st Century.

But, in deference to a US desire to avoid unnecessarily antagonising China, they would not say whether Tang, who has no other US engagements, would indeed meet Wolfowitz or Kelly.

In keeping with a desire for confidentiality, the summit will be strictly off the record, and members of the press will be barred from all sessions.

BODY: Taiwan Defense Minister Tang Yiau-ming said Monday he discussed stability in the Taiwan Strait in an extensive exchange of views with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz on the sidelines of a privately organized defense conference in Florida.

'We discussed how to make the Taiwan Strait even more stable. (I told him) that our troops will not provoke (China), that we won't trigger a war, that this is our policy,' Tang was quoted by Taiwan's semiofficial Central News Agency (CNA) as saying.

Tang told reporters the 100-minute meeting with Wolfowitz was suggested by the U.S. side and, playing down the significance of the unprecedented meeting, said such contacts were 'a very normal thing,' the agency reported from St. Petersburg, Florida, where the conference is being held. The Tang-Wolfowitz meeting marked the highest contact between U.S. and Taiwan defense departments since Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.

Tang, a retired general, said such meetings contribute to mutual understanding and have 'very positive effects' for maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

He also said he does not expect his U.S. trip, which was strongly opposed by Beijing, to trigger tensions with China.

U.S. President George W. Bush, who has said that Washington will 'do whatever it takes' to defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack, reiterated during a trip to China last month that the United States will help defend Taiwan if the island is provoked.

Tang said the two men also discussed how the U.S., based on its own experiences with military reform, could help Taiwan implement recently introduced civilian control over its military.

Under new laws that went into force March 1, the position of Taiwan's chief of the general staff has been downgraded to serve under the defense minister alongside two vice defense ministers, while the previously separated military administrative and command systems were unified.

Tang and Wolfowitz are among high-ranking officials, military leaders and defense contractors from the U.S. and Taiwan attending the three-day 'U.S.-Taiwan Defense Summit 2002,' which began Sunday at a St. Petersburg resort.

The conference is organized by the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, an influential private group fostering business and other exchanges between the two sides in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.

Earlier in the day, Tang delivered a speech at the gathering, expressing the island's willingness to form an 'iron triangle' of security alliances with Japan and South Korea, a Taiwan source said.

'Taiwan can form an iron triangle in Northeast Asia with Japan and (South) Korea,' Tang said, according to the source.

Tang stressed the geographical importance of Taiwan, saying, 'Stability and peace in the Taiwan Strait is not only crucial to our national security but also to the Asia-Pacific region.'

In the speech titled 'Defense and Security Trends in My Country,' Tang thanked the U.S. for arms sales last April and called for continued supply of weapons sufficient for the island's defense.

The military balance between Taiwan and China is 'highly disproportionate in terms of quantity,' Tang said, adding that Taiwan will seek to 'build small, highly efficient and strong quick-response forces.'

The strictly off-the-record defense conference is not open to the press and Taiwan's Defense Ministry has refused to release details of the speech and Tang's meeting with Wolfowitz.

Tang is the first Taiwan defense minister since 1979 to visit the U.S. on a visa other than for the purpose of transit.

Washington issued the visa despite strong protests from China, arguing that Tang was visiting in a private capacity. Tang, however, has said he is attending the conference as Taiwan's defense minister.

Wolfowitz also made a keynote speech on the second day of the conference, while James Kelly, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech Tuesday.

Washington's approval of the Taiwan defense minister's visit to the U.S. has drawn strong criticism from China, which considers Taiwan to be a renegade province, as the trip signals an upgrading of military exchanges between the U.S. and Taiwan.

Borghead, the history of the Harrier does not bear out your dismissive comments. The viability of the Harrier as a fighter has more to do with the training of the pilots and the quality of missiles and electronics carried by said Harriers, then it does with the formal performance statistics written down in Jane's or your favorite military book.

Royal Navy and British army Harriers (effectively equivalent to the AV-8A, the predecessor of the AV-8B) trounced Argentine Mirage fighters, French built aircraft arguably as good then as anything the Chinese have now. If the Chinese improved their training and had modern electronics and missiles equivalent to what we have, the fight would be more even, but I would not count the Harrier out - all other things being equal.

Again, the one advantage the Harrier has over other jet aircraft is that it can be hidden out in the boondocks, dispersed, so as to avoid being wiped out on the airfield, as will surely happen to most of Taiwan's air force if China decided to do so. Thirty Harriers may not be able to do much in the face of overwhelming numbers, but it is significantly better than nothing at all.

All this is predicated on the caveat, of course, that I don't know how well Taiwanese pilots are trained, and I do not know what quality of electronics or missiles these Harriers will be equipped with.

The harriers defeated the French Mirage 1A, thats an early third generation fighter jet roughly equivalent to an upgraded Phantom. If a fight is to occur between a Mirage 2000 and a harrier, the harrier would be destroyed in a few seconds because of its lack of speed, maneuverability, targeting systems, hardpoints,,,etc. The Harrier was a good solid fighter jet back in the late 70s early 80s but nowadays its obsolete as a front line fighter.

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