Bush May Permit Sale of F-16s to Taiwan

President Bush said Thursday that he may end a decade-old ban on the sale of F-16 warplanes to Taiwan, a step that could open the way for new ties with the increasingly prosperous island but would surely provoke a crisis in Washington’s relationship with China.

If approved, the F-16 sale would renew the major arms supply relationship between the United States and Taiwan--a tie that withered after the United States recognized the Chinese government in Beijing and broke formal relations with Taiwan in 1979.

Bush made the promise to reconsider the ban during a telephone interview from Air Force One with a network of Texas radio stations. A senior White House official said the President pledged to “take a good hard look” at the potential sale.

Despite the complex ramifications for U.S. foreign policy, the move would surely be popular in vote-rich Texas, where the plane is built in the Ft. Worth plant of General Dynamics.

The plane’s manufacturer said it is phasing out production of the aircraft, a move that would result in the layoffs of 5,800 workers. The F-16, long the workhorse of the U.S. Air Force’s fighter command, has enjoyed wide overseas sales, but demand has now ebbed.

Taiwan wants to obtain F-16s to redress the military balance with China, which already has acquired Russian-built SU-27 fighter planes. Taiwan’s air force now depends on light F-5Es and old F-104s.

Although Taiwan enjoys almost all the attributes of sovereignty, its diplomatic status is complicated by its history. After Communist forces captured all of mainland China in 1949, the defeated Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) government fled to Taiwan, where it claimed to be the legitimate government of all of China. Officially, both governments consider Taiwan to be part of China.

When the United States transferred its recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, it agreed not to recognize Taiwan as an independent government. In 1982, the Reagan Administration agreed to limit and eventually phase out U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. That pact barred the sale of sophisticated weapons such as the F-16.

Taiwan now is far more democratic than it was in 1979, and its economy has grown so much that it claims to be the 13th-largest trading nation in the world. European nations that long shunned the Taipei government have made overtures, and France has discussed the possible sale of Mirage 2000-5 warplanes.

Meanwhile, U.S. relations with China have cooled, especially since the bloody army crackdown on demonstrators in Tian An Men Square in 1989. Before Thursday, however, Bush, once chief of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Beijing, had been a firm advocate of continued ties with China. He has resisted demands from Congress to end China’s most-favored-nation trade status on the grounds that such a step would end all U.S. influence on Beijing.

In testimony Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee, Undersecretary of State Arnold Kanter defended the Administration’s decision to extend China’s favorable trade treatment.

In one step intended to ease criticism of Chinese trade, Kanter said he expects to sign next week a new agreement with China banning the export to the United States of goods produced in Chinese prisons.

“We have reached agreement on a memorandum of understanding that will prohibit exports of prison labor products to the United States,” Kanter said. The deal will allow U.S. inspectors to visit “suspect Chinese facilities” to make sure the ban is respected, he said.