The senior American official on Taiwan said Thursday the island's legislature should vote to acquire a long-delayed package of U.S. weapons by year's end to help defend itself against Chinese military expansion, ACCORDING TO AP. The comments by Stephen Young, the head of the de facto U.S. Embassy on the island, represent the strongest U.S. plea to date for opposition lawmakers to stop blocking the US$16 billion (¤13 billion) package of Patriot missiles, submarines, and submarine-hunting aircraft. The Nationalist and People First parties have leveraged a slight majority in the 221-seat Legislature to keep consideration of the weapons acquisition bill bottled up in committee for the past two years. «Taiwan needs to pass a robust defense budget in this fall's legislative session,» Young said. «(China's) military modernization program over the last ten years continues. The gap (between Taiwan and China) is getting larger.» Young is head of the American Institute in Taiwan, established following the switch of U.S. diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. Despite the change, Washington remains Taiwan's major foreign backer, and is committed by law to providing it weapons to defend itself against possible Chinese attack. Young made his comments after returning to the island from consultations in Washington, where he met with representatives of the State Department, Congress, the National Security Council and the Department of Defense. He said he encountered great concern about the delay in passing the package because of China's growing military edge over the island. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949, and Beijing has repeatedly threatened to attack if Taiwan moves to formalize its de facto independence. Opposition lawmakers say they oppose the weapons deal because it would force Taiwan into a no-win arms race with its larger communist neighbor. Young acknowledged that Taiwan could not win an arms race with Beijing, but said it didn't need to in order to deter a possible Chinese attack. «(Taiwan) needs to send a signal that it has a defensive capability that an attack on (it) will exact a high price,» he said. Young's support for the weapons package reflects the views of President Chen Shui-bian, who says the decade-long Chinese military buildup _ including the aiming of about 800 missiles at major Taiwanese population centers and military and economic installations _ is a fundamental threat to Taiwanese security. Chen and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party support full independence for the island of 23 million people, while the two opposition parties favor eventual unification with the mainland. In initial reaction to Young's remarks, People First Party leader James Soong pointedly called them unwarranted interference in Taiwan's internal affairs. he U.S. «cannot tell us when to pass which piece of legislation,» he said. There was no immediate comment from Nationalist leader Ma Ying-jeou, who is widely expected to lead the party into presidential elections in 2008. Ma has said Taiwan needs a robust defense to deal with the threat from China, but since becoming party chairman in July 2005, has repeatedly failed to follow through on promises to bring some form of weapons bill to a legislative vote. On Monday the Nationalists reneged on an earlier promise to allow the arms bill to come up for consideration in committee following pressure from the PFP to keep it on hold until prosecutors issue a report on alleged corruption by Chen _ something expected within the next several weeks.
