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The United States is "way past due" to meet Taiwan's request for updated F-16 fighter jets to help plug a growing gap with China, said a former U.S. official overseeing Air Force programs designed to help the self-governing island keep up its defences. "Acquiring new F-16s, in my view, is about maintaining the very same deterrent capability that we helped Taiwan achieve in the late 1990s," Bruce Lemkin told Reuters in an interview. Lemkin, who resigned on June 19 after nearly seven years as the Air Force's deputy under secretary for international affairs, led Air Force efforts to build partnerships...

The chatter in China, and military deployments, indicate that the leadership believes they are now able to take Taiwan by force, before the United States can intervene. Such an attack would have to be without warning, because the United States would put forces in the way if there was any indication that an invasion was imminent. This development comes as no surprise to those who have been watching military and political developments in China and Taiwan during the past two decades. At the end of the Cold War, China had three million troops on active duty, but their weapons, warships...

The Obama administration's regional missile-defense strategy is designed to counter emerging threats like China's new anti-ship ballistic missile and other so-called anti-access weapons, a senior defense official said Monday. Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III said during a speech outlining the administration's missile-defense priorities that "potential adversaries are planning to employ ballistic missiles in anti-access tactics." Mr. Lynn did not name China, but the Pentagon has said Beijing's military is building a new 930-mile-range ballistic missile with a precision-guided, maneuvering warhead that will be accurate enough to hit aircraft carriers and other ships at sea. The Pentagon has used...

I am putting together a comprehensive comparison and analysis site regarding the face off in the Taiwan Starits between the Taiwan Navy (ROCN) and the Red Chinese Navy (PLAN). I include in the analysis and the comparison, the likely surface combatants that the US would send to the assistance of Taiwan in the event of agression by the Red Chinese. Please take a look by clicking on the logo below and let me know what you think: Also, please feel free to refer others who have questions or interest regarding this potential flashpoint in toda6y's world. It is clear, in...

"The United States has agreed to sell Taiwan 66 advanced fighter jets to counter China's continued arms build-up..."

Russia and China hope to sign a massive arms deal after staging joint exercises for the first time RUSSIA will show off its most modern bombers to its best military customer and China will have a chance to demonstrate that it is a force to be reckoned with when the giant neighbours hold their first joint military exercises this month. The decision to hold the drills off the east China coast in the Yellow Sea came after a disagreement over Beijing’s initial desire for the games to take place further south, opposite the island of Taiwan — which it hopes...

.S. military officials said yesterday they will be watching closely as China and Russia prepare for unprecedented joint military exercises later this month to be staged on a Chinese province close to the Korean Peninsula. Dubbed "Peace Mission 2005," the Aug. 18 to 25 exercises between the two Cold War rivals will involve about 10,000 troops, as well as Russian fighter planes and paratroopers and China's growing nuclear submarine fleet. .... The exercises, seen as hard evidence of a warming alliance between the two powers against U.S. influence in Asia, have sparked concern across the region, particularly in Taiwan, which...

"ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS The Military Power of the People's Republic of China" ....

What will America do if someday China attacks Taiwan? Beijing recently authorized the use of force if Taiwan ever declares its independence. America has a defense treaty with Taiwan, but honoring that treaty would likely mean war with China. Even though the Taiwanese have never been ruled by the People's Republic of China, the mainland has made absorbing Taiwan a national crusade. And China's new anti-secession law now gives the Chinese military the green light to attack Taiwan if the island pursues formal independence. Taiwan says the new law is tantamount to preparation for war. And that could mean war...

An American military adviser group is observing a computer simulation that is part of Taiwan's annual "Han Kuang 21" military exercise, a legislator of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said Tuesday. The remarks by DPP Legislator Lee Wen-chung, a member of the defense committee in the Legislative Yuan and an expert in Taiwan military affairs, came after Japan's NHK TV channel reported that Dennis Blair, former head of the U.S. Pacific Command, is leading a delegation of around 20 military officers that is observing the computerized wargames that started Monday. NHK commented that this was the first time that...

Around the time of the passage of the "Anti-Secession" Law, China showed that it was concerned about Taiwan and the international community's reaction to the law by trying to create an "atmosphere of peace." Chinese Communist Party Secretary-General Hu Jintao's (­JÀAÀÜ) four-point guideline does not mention military force, and Premier Wen Jiabao (·Å®aÄ_) made similar remarks. But the law openly praises the use of non-peaceful means, laying bare the hypocrisy of the Chinese leaders. This, however, is not the crux of the problem. Looking at the Chinese military and public opinion, we see the ghosts of war behind this law,...

Taipei, March 21 (CNA) Vice Minister of National Defense Huo Shou-yeh accentuated Monday the need for Taiwan to procure the U.S.-made Patriot PAC III anti-missile system, saying if the procurement plan is dropped, Taiwan will be unable to defend itself from China's missile attacks. Huo made the remarks while fielding questions from opposition lawmakers at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan's Defense Committee. In an attempt to persuade opposition lawmakers to support the Ministry of National Defense's (MND's) long-stalled arms procurement package, Huo said if the plan to purchase six Patriot PAC III anti-missile batteries is killed, Taiwan will not...

BRITAIN is facing an increasingly acrimonious argument with America over military exports to China after the Communist party pledged yesterday to push through legislation allowing for war with Taiwan. Washington fears its sailors and pilots could face weapons guided by European technology in a battle over Taiwan, which split from China in 1949 and is a thriving democracy. One example cited by American analysts is a micro-satellite developed by Surrey University’s commercial arm which will give China increased ability to survey the Taiwan Straits and enhance knowledge that could be used to wage war in space. The firm, Surrey Satellite...

More than fifty-five thousand people attended a march organized by the Taiwan Solidarity Union in Kaohsiung yesterday to protest against the impending passage of an anti-secession law by China's rubber-stamp parliament. Demonstrators urged China to accept that the self-ruled island is already an independent country. In front of a large crowd cheering "I love you Uncle A-Hui," the Taiwan Solidarity Union's spiritual leader and ex-President, Lee Teng-hui (§õµn½÷), warned the public that now is the time to choose between slavery or freedom. Part of the world, but not China Lee told the assembled protesters, "The anti-secession law is aimed at...

China warned yesterday that increasing US-Japan military cooperation should be strictly bilateral and not encompass Beijing's arch-rival Taiwan. Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (§õ»F¬P) said Beijing sought better ties with both Washington and Tokyo -- China's two major trading partners -- but he refused to back down from territorial disputes that have recently become increasingly bitter. "Any part of putting Taiwan directly or indirectly into the scope of Japan-US security cooperation constitutes an encroachment on China's sovereignty and interference in China's internal affairs," Li said. "The Chinese government and people are firmly against such activities." During a wide-ranging press conference on...

Beijing, Mar 4 (Prensa Latina) Chinese President Hu Jintao reasserted here Friday that his country will keep on making efforts to reach the peaceful reunification of China, but without permitting the independence of Taiwan. Hu Jintao, Head of State and Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party (CPCh), talked about the topic before a group of delegates attending to the annual session of the Chinese People"s Political Consulting Conference (ChPPCC) in representation of Taiwan, which started Thursday. "We will keep on making our greatest efforts, with our greatest sincerity, searching for peaceful reunification, but we will never tolerate the independence...

China National Offshore Oil Corporation is considering a nearly $14bn (£7bn, €10.6bn) takeover of Unocal of the US. Sinopec, another Chinese state-controlled oil group, has struck a $70bn deal to buy Iranian crude oil and liquefied natural gas over three decades. China has sent $6bn to Rosneft, the Russian company that bought the main production unit of the embattled Yukos oil group, as advance payment for oil supplies. India has just reached a $40bn agreement to import LNG from Iran and develop Iranian oilfields, and is promoting pipeline projects to bring oil and gas across neighbouring countries to supply its...

PARIS - Europe has angered the United States with talk of canceling its arms embargo against China - but governments and companies on the continent have for years delivered weapons and other equipment to Beijing and its rapidly modernizing People's Liberation Army. In Germany, a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler AG says it is supplying diesel engines for Chinese submarines. And there's been a surge in European export licenses to China for goods - about $550 million in 2003 alone - that are designed for war or could have military and civilian applications, a gauge of Europe's growing willingness to profit from...

Asia Pacific News » Taiwanese soldiers on manoeuvres Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 11 August 2004 1742 hrs Taiwan stages war games as report shows China would win in six days TAIPEI : Taiwan's armed forces staged a drill simulating an invasion by rival China, as a military computer exercise showed Taiwanese troops could withstand a similar onslaught for just six days. The scenario of the maneuver, the first of two rehearsals for a major exercise to be held on August 25, was that Taiwan troops had failed to hold off an amphibious landing by Chinese forces, TVBS...