Fighter Sale to Taiwan Also Worries Japanese : Military: U.S. plan understandably angers China. But other Asian nations have reservations.

While the Bush Administration decision to sell 150 F-16 fighters to Taiwan has understandably infuriated China, which regards the island nation as one of its provinces, it has also raised worries among Asian nations normally regarded as friendly to Taiwan.

Although they would not express themselves publicly, Japanese officials said this week that the American decision, announced Wednesday, is ill-conceived, could accelerate the arms race in Asia and raises questions about America’s ability to cooperate with its allies in the Pacific.

“The credibility of America’s China policy is at stake,” said a Foreign Ministry official who asked not to be identified by name.

The official argued that the jet sale is inconsistent with America’s stated goal of discouraging arms sales in the region. The United States had previously protested France’s effort to sell Mirage fighters to Taiwan, he noted. The F-16 sale also undercuts Japan’s efforts, made partly in response to American demands, to pressure China not to export weapons, the official said.

“If U.S. policy is being held hostage to domestic elections, that is most dangerous,” he said, referring to suggestions in the United States that President Bush approved the sale, valued at up to $6 billion, to win votes in Texas. The F-16 is made by General Dynamics in Ft. Worth, and the company had been considering laying off 5,800 workers before his decision.

Some China observers here also expressed concern that the sale, which reverses 10 years of U.S. weapons policy toward Taiwan, will strengthen the hand of hard-liners in Beijing who are annoyed by U.S. criticism of Chinese human rights policies and uneasy about U.S. world domination following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Beijing kept up its criticism Friday, a day after it had lodged a strong protest with U.S. Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy over the decision. The National People’s Congress, China’s Parliament, called the decision “an actual display of hegemonism and power politics” and demanded that it be rescinded.

And a commentary from the official New China News Agency, released late Thursday, said, “The Bush Administration has fabricated various excuses and lies trying to justify its arms sale decision, which is seriously jeopardizing Sino-U.S. relations.”

In an interview Friday with the Cable News Network, acting Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger said he thinks U.S.-China relations are facing “a rough patch” because of the sale. But China has “too much riding on the relationship with us in economic and political terms” to risk a complete rupture, he said.

“At the same time, it’s a relationship we have to continue to try and manage” because China is too big and important a country to shun or ignore, he added.

Japanese officials critical of the sale decision were concerned not only about policy aspects; they also expressed annoyance that in spite of the Bush Administration’s assertions that it wants a partnership with Japan in Asia, it did not bother to consult the Japanese government about the jet sale or even give advance notice of the decision.

“If there is a dramatic turn such as the sale of arms (to Taiwan) after refusing for 10 years, there should be reasons for it,” said a senior Foreign Ministry official. “We need a dialogue. China policy is a potentially explosive area in which the U.S. and Japan could be divided.”

Japan is a major aid donor to China, and Japanese corporations are investing heavily in manufacturing facilities throughout the country. Unlike America, Japan has been reluctant to risk China’s ire by pressing it on such issues as human rights, preferring instead to encourage China to continue on its path of economic reform.

The Bush Administration’s failure to notify Japan in advance of the Taiwan jet sale decision is seen as the second major snub in recent weeks. After Bush announced the North American Free Trade Agreement, Japanese officials sent out a press release noting sharply that Tokyo’s only information about the deal was coming from Canada. The United States hadn’t bothered to brief Japan, its largest trade partner, the officials complained.

When Japanese officials asked the U.S. trade representative’s office for a fuller explanation of the trade agreement, they received a three-page reply from Carla Anderson Hills simply assuring Japan that the agreement does not violate existing trade agreements.

Analysts here say America’s failure to consult with Japan’s Foreign Ministry undercuts the ministry’s standing in relation to other key ministries. The ministry has in the past been the most vocal champion of American foreign policy interests in Japan. It was a key proponent, for example, of Japanese financial support for America’s Persian Gulf War effort.

Regarding Bush’s sale of the jets to Taiwan, however, official concern goes beyond the hurt feelings of not being consulted.

“It would have been better to persuade China to reduce its purchases of Russian aircraft,” one official said.

Japan is not the only country expressing concern about the sale.

“We are worried that the sale of so many F-16s to Taiwan might start a flurry of arms acquisitions first in Northeast Asia and then, as a reaction, in Southeast Asia,” Jusuf Wanandi, chairman of the supervisory board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, Indonesia, told the International Herald Tribune.

The Bush Administration argues that the F-16 sale will counter China’s purchase of Sukhoi 27 fighters from Russia. Russia recently delivered 24 of the fighters and has reportedly signed an agreement to provide a further 70 and an undisclosed number of MIG-29s or MIG-31s.

Analysts believe the fighters will be used to back China’s claims to the widely scattered Spratlys, an island chain in the South China Sea that is the key to control of offshore oil and gas. Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to the islands. Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei claim parts of the chain.

An arms race in the region could destabilize a sea lane in the South China Sea that is important to Japan.