Taiwan Cleared to Buy Radar System

In its first concrete response to China’s increasing deployment of missiles in coastal areas, the Clinton administration has agreed to clear the way for Taiwan to buy an early warning radar system from the United States, according to administration and congressional sources.

The decision, made Monday in a meeting with Taiwanese defense officials in Washington, would give Taiwan several minutes’ warning if China was to launch either missiles or manned bombers across the Taiwan Strait.

A Clinton administration official acknowledged Wednesday that one purpose of the approval is to try to dissuade China from continuing its buildup of missiles opposite Taiwan.

“It is China’s steady deployment of missiles that is driving the current dynamic, and we have to try to reverse this dynamic,” explained the administration source. Like other officials, he said the sale to Taiwan had been approved in principle and that further details will have to be worked out.

Yu Shuning, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said his government already has lodged a protest with the Clinton administration. “We oppose all arms sales to Taiwan from any country, including the United States,” Yu said. “We have already made representations to the U.S. government opposing these specific [radar] sales.”

Administration officials said this week’s action should not be read as a signal to China that the United States is prepared to sell advanced missile defense systems if the Chinese deployments continue.

Last week, House International Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.) wrote to President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright supporting the sale of the radar system and threatening to take legislative action if it was denied.

“We have to recognize that Taiwan’s need for early warning radars is the direct result of menacing policies that have been deliberately pursued by the Chinese government, and I cannot abide a decision by the Clinton administration to leave Taiwan vulnerable to the growing threat,” Gilman wrote.

A Republican staff member on Capitol Hill claimed that Gilman’s letter had turned the administration around. “The National Security Council and the State Department were against this, and the Defense Department was for it,” said the congressional source. “Ten days ago, it was dead, and then Gilman intervened.”

However, administration officials, speaking on the condition that they not be identified, said their decision to approve the radar system sale was already in the works when Gilman’s letter was received.

“It’s false that we objected to” the sale, said one White House official. Another administration official said there had been “certainly shades of difference” between the State and Defense departments over the sale. However, he went on, “it was not as black and white as that.”

Eric Chiang, a spokesman for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States, which is in charge of Taiwan’s unofficial relations with this country, said he could not confirm or comment on the administration’s decision. “Both sides agree not to discuss the specific details of this process,” he said.

China opposes American arms sales to Taiwan, in part because it fears that the weapons strengthen Taiwan’s hand in dealing with the mainland. For similar reasons, during the 1980s, when the United States was selling arms to China, Taiwan sought to limit those sales.

According to a recent Defense Department report, China plans to build up by 2005 its deployments of both short-range ballistic missiles and land-attack cruise missiles in the mainland areas opposite Taiwan.

Several years ago, Taiwan was permitted to buy an improved version of the Patriot surface-to-air system from the United States--the same system used against Iraqi Scud missiles during the Persian Gulf War. However, the Pentagon report acknowledged that this system alone “will not sufficiently offset the overwhelming advantage in offensive missiles which Beijing is projected to possess in 2005.”

The Taiwan Relations Act, passed in 1979 after the United States broke off relations with Taiwan, generally requires the United States to provide Taiwan with the arms it needs for its defense. Over the past two decades, various administrations have been forced to try to figure out exactly what Taipei should receive.

Each year, Taiwanese military officials come to Washington with a shopping list, and the United States then decides what they will be permitted to buy. The early warning radar system appears to be the most significant sale since the Bush administration decided in the midst of the 1992 presidential campaign to let Taiwan buy long-sought F-16 warplanes.

A congressional aide estimated that the radar system would cost Taiwan about $200 million over several years. He said the system is made by several different American companies.

The debate within the Clinton administration focused on the question of how to prevent an arms race across the Taiwan Strait, according to administration sources.

Some officials, particularly at the State Department, were said to have argued that the radar system sale might contribute to the arms race. Others, particularly at the Pentagon, were said to have argued that the acquisition might show Beijing that the costs of its buildup outweighed the benefits.

“Everyone looking at this is focusing on the potential damage of a possible cycle of escalation,” one administration official said. But “the time has come to take a little bit more dynamic step on our part. . . . One hopes that [China] will think twice about further deployments.”