Taiwan Wednesday broke its silence on the US-China spy plane standoff by urging Washington to supply the high-tech weapons its says it needs to defend itself against China.
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung said Taiwan's interests must not be sacrificed in any deal to resolve the escalating dispute between the two superpowers.
He urged the United States to respect the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), under which Washington is committed to providing the island with the means to defend itself.
The spy plane row has blown up as US President George W. Bush mulls a decision on whether to provide Taiwan with naval destroyers equipped with the Aegis radar system and other advanced weaponry that Taipei has requested.
Some analysts have suggested that China is cranking up the pressure over the spy plane to make it harder for Bush to agree to the Taiwanese request, which Beijing fears would mark a significant upgrading of the US commitment to defending Taiwan.
Chang asked relevant government agencies to keep a close eye on the development of the crisis to see "if the Chinese communists will use the incident in a quid-pro-quo deal."
"They must think in advance about any possibility of developments from the event so that countermeasures can be taken swiftly," he said.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell had said he did not think the incident would be a factor in US decisions about arms sales to Taiwan.
The US Navy EP-3 Aries plane made an emergency landing on China's Hainan island Sunday after colliding over the South China Sea with a Chinese fighter jet, which is still missing.
Beijing opposes any arms sale to Taiwan, which it regards as part of its territory. The island has not been ruled from Beijing since the 19th century and has been governed as a de facto independent state since 1949, when over a million nationalists fled there after Mao's communists won the Chinese civil war.
Chang called on both Washington and Beijing to exercise self-restraint in settling the dispute.
"It is our sincere hope that the two sides would comfort to international law and precedents and properly solve the issue to ensure peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region," he said – TAIPEI (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
