More Than Milk
The nice lady from Taiwan wanted non-fat dry milk and I was happy to help her. When we were through with that, she said she had a few other items on her shopping list. How about some tanks, a couple destroyers and – oh, yes – a few fighter-bombers? Maybe a submarine? My job was to boost U.S. exports, but this raised an eyebrow. Seems the nice lady had friends in Taiwan’s military and wanted to see if there was a “back door” to buying American military equipment and technology. There isn’t, if you wish to stay legal.
Are Humvees Offensive?
Military sales to Taiwan are a huge issue, which I was reminded of this week by an article in the International Herald Tribune. The United States is between a rock and a hard place on this one. Though we have diplomatic relations with Beijing, we are required by our own Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 to supply Taipei with arms and technology for “defensive purposes”. It’s tough to draw a line between defense and offense, and China’s definitions always differ from Taiwan’s (or Washington’s). The U.S and Taiwan are preparing a new military sales package that apparently will include minesweepers, Black Hawk helicopters and perhaps some design work on non-nuclear submarines. Maybe some new Patriot missiles. Each of these is plausibly defensive – and some can conceivably be used for offense.
What worries me is not the actual arms shipments, but how reactions to them can distort other business in both Taiwan and China. China always reacts badly to these deals, leading Beijing to do things like cutting military relations with the United States for a while or putting off deals for civilian aircraft for Chinese airlines – usually things that really aren’t in China’s long-term interest, but may be necessary to appease domestic hawks. Childish, really, but most countries do similar things occasionally. Taiwan’s pariah status leads certain other suppliers of military technologies to try to supply them under the table (so China won’t notice, though this hardly ever works) and often as part of a larger (though unmentioned) deal to sell Taiwan high-end civilian technology or infrastructure.
By the way, the nice lady from Taiwan did not get what she wanted.
