China cancels US military contact

[Spring Onion]

Page last updated at 23:40 GMT, Monday, 6 October 2008 00:40 UK


China cancels US military contact

The US said the deal would not affect the military balance in the region
China has cancelled military and diplomatic exchanges with the US in protest at a $6.5bn deal to supply Taiwan with arms, US officials say.

A number of senior level visits and military-to-military exchanges due before November would not go ahead, the US defence department said.

The sales include advanced interceptor missiles, Apache helicopters and submarine-launched missiles.

China regards Taiwan as its territory and opposes US military support.

'Unfortunate'

Pentagon spokesman Maj Stewart Upton said: "China's continued politicisation of our military relationship results in missed opportunities."

The Chinese move affects a visit by a senior Chinese general, navy port calls and meetings on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

China will also not participate in an exchange on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

"It's an unfortunate step," said US state department deputy spokesman Robert Wood.

On Saturday the Chinese foreign ministry said: "The Chinese government and the Chinese people strongly oppose and object to the US government's actions, which harm Chinese interests and Sino-US relations."

The US is Taiwan's largest arms supplier.

The US said the deal would not alter the military balance in the region but was "a demonstration of the commitment of this administration to provide Taiwan the defensive arms its needs to be strong".
BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | China cancels US military contact

 

[kvLin]

that's right before negotiation over China's economic rescue to the wall street,coz China holds the biggest life boat loan.

 

[dr.umer]

its seems baby china angry lol. I just wonder how can little taiwan worries china so much. It makes me even more wonder india going to shop 30 Billion dollars weapons by 2012 and in that Usa will have big share. Its tough times ahead for china lol. Claiming taiwan there part but cant stop them from buying weapons from usa lol hahaha

I think US should be thankful to China if it wishes to purchase weapons from her. After all "weapons" is the most probably only commodity left with US to sell.

 

[nitesh]

^^
China purchasing weapons from US?? Where the heck it comes from?

And US only sales arms? Check this: Westinghouse AP100 Power Technology

 

[su-47]

I think US should be thankful to China if it wishes to purchase weapons from her. After all "weapons" is the most probably only commodity left with US to sell.

i think you misunderstood the article. USA is not selling weapons to china. they are selling to Taiwan. China opposes the deal and cancelled some exercises with USA

 

[dr.umer]

Sorry, I misunderstood.

 

[frhbg]

At this special time, that the USA decided to sell Taiwan weapons may take bad effect on the friendship between china and America.
It is not a wise decision for America.

 

[Black Stone]

its seems baby china angry lol. I just wonder how can little taiwan worries china so much. It makes me even more wonder india going to shop 30 Billion dollars weapons by 2012 and in that Usa will have big share. Its tough times ahead for china lol. Claiming taiwan there part but cant stop them from buying weapons from usa lol hahaha

Your posts are funny indeed, anyways, China is not scared of Taiwan, they are worried what's behind them.

 

[gpit]

The US has profited hugely from Taiwan issue, and there is no question that it will keep profiting from it till the last drop of blood is squeezed out, as long as the reward is calculated larger than the risk (much like Wall Street financial derivatives).

Since KMT rotated into the power in TW, the relation across the Strait has apparently been improved, much to the uneasiness of US hawkish politicians. Those politicians publicize their unhappiness in various occasions.

There is another rumor that RAND reported to Congress that Chinese J-14 is fake news, which causes US to harden the decision of the arms sale. I’ve not found the credible report on this, though.

The arms sale to Taiwan is a huge set-back to Sino-US relationship, and will probably have lasting ripples in the world affairs: NK, Iran, just naming an obvious few.

I think Chinese leaders must realize that a peaceful unification of TW, just as an eruption of violence in the Strait, is not in the interest of US, nor is in the interest of TW politicians, regardless they are “blue” or “green”.

 

[Black Stone]

At this special time, that the USA decided to sell Taiwan weapons may take bad effect on the friendship between china and America.
It is not a wise decision for America.

This is actually a well calculated move. The arms package has been in the pipeline for ages and due to the Sino-US relations, that package is on hold. We want to arm Taiwan for many reasons, both for politics and economics, however we needed China's co-operation on Iran and NK.

But since the current administration is near it's end, the Chinese would not carry the grudge to the new admin, since new admin is a new start to their perspective of US relations.

I believe one Chinese leader said that "There is no permanent hostility with the US" (hence the change in admin/policy every 4/8 years).

 

[Awesome]

It makes sense... You supply weapons to another country to kill you, its time to cut contacts. And possibly even some payback.

There is another Chinese ally that can do well to learn from this obvious logic.

 

[Neo]

It makes sense... You supply weapons to another country to kill you, its time to cut contacts. And possibly even some payback.

There is another Chinese ally that can do well to learn from this obvious logic.

Cancelling the military excercises is a symbolic gesture by China to show her discontent with the US' reckless attitude towards Beijing but it will not hurt anyone. Although China and USA have a symbiotic commerce relationship any retalliation by China would hurt USA consumers more than Chinese industry.

Pakistan is in no position to do that but I agree, we can learn a lot from this obvious logic.

 

[Black Stone]

Cancelling the military excercises is a symbolic gesture by China to show her discontent with the US' reckless attitude towards Beijing but it will not hurt anyone. Although China and USA have a symbiotic commerce relationship any retalliation by China would hurt USA consumers more than Chinese industry.

Pakistan is in no position to do that but I agree, we can learn a lot from this obvious logic.

Yes, the Sino-US economic relations is deeply mutually dependent, any upset on the other side gives no benefit to the other, vice versa.

I believe this is a temporary upset, just like before, we sell things to Taiwan and the Chinese gets into a tantrum, when the Chinese sells Iran things we will get into a tantrum, but after a while everything will be back to normal.

 

[kvLin]

the arm sale is not likely to protect Taiwan, see what's in the weapon list:

Patriot III anti-missile system, E-2T airborne early warning aircraft upgrade system, Apache helicopters, Javelin missiles, Harpoon submarine-launched missiles, and some airplane accessory parts

Apache helicopters and submarine-launched missiles make up the biggest part of the 6.2bln deal, but helicopters don't help any when there's a cross strait war, and taiwan has been lacking modern submarines which can launche missiles such as Harpoon.

the most wanted by Taiwan is F-16 block52, still at a deadlock.

arm sale is always the key point of taiwan issue, and taiwan issue is the core of sino-us relation. the US has been playing Taiwan card for half a century, every step is actually for US national interest. believe it or not, the Taiwan issue is never business of people in Taiwan.

nothing ever realistically happened around the strait when so many years past, no unification,no independence, namely what we call "status quo" being maintained by the Sino-US balance.

each time the balance gets broken, it is aimed for a new balance.

but this time the cowboy is apparently running a risk, coz it's very hard for US to throw sanctions upon the world's No.4 economic entity as well as it's biggest trade partner if China got infuriated and overreacts against US. he can only pin his hope that China wont risk big loss doing so.

 

[nitesh]

but this time the cowboy is apparently running a risk, coz it's very hard for US to throw sanctions upon the world's No.4 economic entity as well as it's biggest trade partner if China got infuriated and overreacts against US. he can only pin his hope that China wont risk big loss doing so.

kvlin what you said about weapon sales is correct, but as you said US and China are largest trading partners. So does only US carries the risk and china does not carry any risk at all?