China Demands U.S. Heed Pact on Taiwan Arms

China demanded today that Washington “strictly” honor its 1982 agreement to reduce arms sales to Taiwan following a U.S. proposal to sell $260-million worth of anti-submarine warfare equipment to the Nationalist island.

“The position of the Chinese government on the question of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan is consistent,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said when asked Peking’s reaction to Washington’s announcement Friday of plans to sell military technology and expertise to Taiwan.

“We are opposed to the United States’ selling of weapons to Taiwan and demand that the American side strictly carry out its commitments made in the Sino-U.S. joint communique issued on Aug. 17, 1982,” the official said.

Pentagon officials said the sale would extend the service life of two S-2E-G anti-submarine aircraft, develop two prototype S-2T planes and provide 30 kits and engineering services to modify 30 of the older S-2E-Gs to convert them to S-2T models.

Self-Defense Capability

Congress has 30 days in which to disapprove the sale, which the Pentagon said would provide Taiwan with a “self-defense, anti-submarine warfare capability” and would not alter the military balance between China and Taiwan.

Peking has considered Taiwan a rebel province since the Nationalists fled to the island in 1949 to escape advancing communist forces.

Under the 1982 “Second Shanghai Communique,” Washington pledged that arms sales to Taiwan “will not exceed either in qualitative or quantitative terms” the level supplied since 1979.