Push for Taiwan Arms Sales Shows the Hand of Politics

By JIM MANN

April 22, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON —

A year ago, as the Clinton administration was trying to decide what weapon systems to sell to Taiwan, it suddenly found itself under intense pressure from one of the most powerful men on Capitol Hill.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) wanted the White House to let Taiwan buy advanced Aegis radar systems mounted on Arleigh Burke destroyers. And he wanted two of those warships to be built at Litton-Ingalls’ shipyards in his hometown of Pascagoula, Miss.

At the time, Congress was considering sweeping new legislation, vigorously opposed by the administration, to mandate a broad array of new weapon systems for Taiwan.

“Lott made it brutally plain that either we approved the two boats for Pascagoula or we’d get this law rammed [down our throat],” recalls one former Clinton administration official, who declined to be named.

In the end, the administration didn’t approve the Aegis system, and the law wasn’t enacted. But Lott has continued to press for more weapon systems for Taiwan, and these efforts will likely bear fruit this week, when the Bush administration is scheduled to announce a sizable new package of U.S. weapons for Taiwan.

Lott’s involvement with Taiwan arms sales demonstrates the extent to which national security decisions are influenced not only by abstract foreign policy and defense issues but also by more parochial concerns.

The Senate majority leader--who receives substantial campaign contributions from Litton and other defense-electronics firms--has been a pivotal player in the intense congressional efforts over the last few years to provide Taiwan with more U.S. arms, training and other military help.

Dave Hoppe, Lott’s chief of staff, said in an interview: “Is Sen. Lott’s support for [Aegis destroyers] based on a shipbuilding premise? No, it’s not. Sen. Lott’s support is based on the threat assessment.”

He said the events involving China over the last three weeks “make it even more important that our allies, which Taiwan certainly is, can be adequately protected in that part of the Pacific.”

Over the last decade, as China has built up its military forces, Taiwan has emerged as one of the leading export markets for America’s defense industry. The Taipei government bought more than $20 billion in weaponry from 1992 to 1999, more than any other developing nation except Saudi Arabia. The overwhelming share came from the United States.

Congress has become the driving force. Taiwan’s congressional supporters haven’t just pushed directly for weapon sales; they have also taken a series of more subtle, seemingly roundabout steps that have created a climate for further weapon transfers.

Over the last three years, for example, lobbyists for Taiwan have pushed a series of obscure amendments, some of them sponsored by Lott, that have obliged the Defense Department to make public previously classified data about China’s growing missile deployments in coastal areas near Taiwan.

These Pentagon reports “served to buttress arguments for further arms sales” to Taiwan, said Kurt Campbell, a deputy assistant secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration. The executive branch, he said, was slow to recognize the effect of what Congress was requiring.

In recent weeks, most of the public focus concerning arms sales has been on whether Taiwan would be allowed to buy the advanced Aegis system--the same one Lott failed to persuade the Clinton administration to approve a year ago. China has mounted a determined campaign to stop the Bush administration from selling the Aegis, which can defend against threats from air, land, sea and even under water.

But even if the Bush administration doesn’t clear the way for Taiwan to buy the Aegis, it will probably approve a sweeping package of other new weapon systems. Taiwan has also asked for diesel-electric submarines, P-3 anti-submarine aircraft, Apache attack helicopters, anti-submarine torpedoes, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Abrams battle tanks, anti-radiation missiles, amphibious assault vehicles and self-propelled howitzers.

“What the Chinese have done is to put themselves in a lose-lose situation,” asserted Gerald Warburg of Cassidy & Associates, a lobbying firm with a $2-million-a-year contract from Taiwan. (The contract is paid by an independent institute in Taipei with close ties to Taiwan’s government.)

“By digging in their heels against [the Aegis], they’ve ensured that one of the largest U.S. arms sales in nearly a generation will go forward along with expanded U.S.-Taiwan military cooperation.”

A Traditional Role

Lott’s role is part of a long Senate tradition. For a quarter of a century, some of the most influential Republican senators have championed Taiwan’s interests against the People’s Republic of China, which considers the island part of its own territory.

Barry Goldwater played the role for many years. Bob Dole later took it over. (Justice Department records show that, in retirement, Dole has served as a registered lobbyist for Taiwan.)

Nor is Taiwan exclusively a Republican preserve on Capitol Hill. Over the years, many Democrats, such as John Glenn and Paul Simon, have also been strong supporters of Taiwan.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, Taiwan’s congressional champions focused unsuccessfully on maintaining or restoring an official diplomatic relationship between the United States and Taipei’s Republic of China government.

But over the last decade, as China has begun to modernize the People’s Liberation Army and deploy its M-9 and M-11 missiles in locations where they might reach Taiwan, Congress turned its attention to ensuring that Taiwan had enough weaponry to defend itself.

Lott has been a supporter of Taiwan for a quarter of a century. But in recent years, his interest in Taiwan has been amplified by the desire to land contracts for Mississippi shipping and defense-electronics firms.

One of these Mississippi firms, Litton-Ingalls, does extensive work for the U.S. Navy. Earlier this year, for example, it received a $106-million contract to repair and restore the guided-missile destroyer Cole, which was damaged in a terrorist attack in Yemen last fall.

Over the last decade, Navy contracts for the manufacture of Arleigh Burke destroyers equipped with Aegis radar systems have been split evenly between two facilities: General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works in Maine and Litton-Ingalls.

The contracts for these Aegis destroyers are huge. The Navy’s version of an Aegis-equipped destroyer costs roughly $1 billion, although experts say that any Aegis destroyer given to Taiwan would be slightly less advanced--and less costly--than the American versions.

“For many legislators, Taiwan is a perfect blend of ideology and defense procurement because many of the weapons systems are produced in their home districts,” said Campbell.

Federal Election Commission records show that Litton Industries, Litton-Ingalls’ parent, was one of Lott’s top 10 contributors during the six years leading up to his reelection last year, donating $11,000. (This month, Litton Industries was taken over by Northrop Grumman Corp. of Los Angeles.)

The FEC records, tabulated by the Center for Responsive Politics, also show that Lott received $7,000 from General Dynamics, the other principal manufacturer of Aegis systems.

The commercial and political support for the Aegis system extend well beyond these two companies.

An “Aegis Industrial Alliance” has formed to help win public and congressional support for the advanced radar system--not just for Taiwan but also for the United States and other nations.

“The Aegis program involves over 1,938 contractors in 49 states . . . generating $21.5 billion to the U.S. economy,” the alliance says on its Web site.

Lott’s endeavors have gone beyond simply goading executive branch officials to let Taiwan buy the Aegis. He has also played a key role in prying loose from the executive branch information demonstrating Taiwan’s need for new American weaponry.

Since 1999, Congress has required the Pentagon to report on the military balance between Taiwan and China.

Lott and Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska) have been the main sponsors. Lott last year also won approval for a measure requiring the administration to give Congress 30 days’ notice of what weapon systems it plans to approve for Taiwan.

Taiwan’s Washington lobbyists had worked closely with Lott’s and Murkowski’s staffs on these provisions. “We were trying to develop a public database so that . . . the facts [about Taiwan’s military needs] were part of the public discourse,” explained Warburg, the lobbyist for Taiwan.

Education Process

These little-noticed provisions have dramatically altered the climate affecting arms sales to Taiwan. What was once an obscure process is now increasingly open to congressional and public debate.

The official Pentagon reports (available on the Defense Department’s Web site, https://www.defenselink.mil) have brought to light the extent of China’s buildup of missiles near Taiwan.

“By 2005, the [Chinese] People’s Liberation Army will possess the capability to attack Taiwan with air and missile strikes which would degrade key military facilities and damage the island’s economic infrastructure,” concluded the first of the reports.

A U.S. official who is not permitted to speak to reporters on the record said: “The requirement to do these reports helped to educate people across the U.S. government with responsibilities for Asia in general and Taiwan in particular about the nature of China’s capabilities and Taiwan’s needs.”

But critics say the reports have skewed America’s decisions about Taiwan’s defense needs.

“These studies have killed any discussion of China’s intentions and put everything in the context of the military balance,” says Chas W. Freeman Jr., a former U.S. diplomat who frequently argues that Washington does not understand the Chinese leadership. He notes that China needs military capabilities to deal not just with Taiwan but with other nations, such as India, Russia, Vietnam and the United States.

Nevertheless, China’s missile buildup and its recent military acquisitions seem to be aimed particularly at Taiwan, according to the Pentagon studies.

For Lott, the Pentagon studies have served an additional purpose: They have helped him make the case that Taiwan should be allowed to buy Pascagoula’s Aegis destroyers. In January, he sent a letter to President Bush that was also signed by Mississippi’s other senator, Republican Thad Cochran.

In it, the Senate majority leader told the president that a “recent Department of Defense-led review of Taiwan’s maritime defense requirements concluded that the Aegis system was a priority item and should be released to Taiwan this year.”

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The Aegis System

Facts about the Aegis combat system:

* The high-powered radar is able to perform search and missile-guidance functions and can track 100 or more targets simultaneously.

* Destroyers equipped with the system are capable of anti-air, anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare.

* Ships in the Arleigh Burke class of destroyers and Ticonderoga class of cruisers are equipped with the Aegis system. The guided-missile destroyer Cole, damaged in a terrorist attack in Yemen in October, is Arleigh Burke class.

* System includes AN/SPY-1B radar and AN/UYK-43/44 computers.

* Aegis-type craft cost about $1 billion.

Source: Associated Press

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The Flow of Arms

The 10 leading arms purchasers among developing nations during the eight years from 1992 through 1999 with money spent in billions:

Saudi Arabia: $66.1

Taiwan: 20.6

Egypt: 9.7

South Korea: 8.8

United Arab Emirates: 7.8

Kuwait: 7.6