US arms sales will not alter military balance, experts say

Washington's US$6.4 billion arms sales to Taiwan won't stop the cross-strait military balance tilting further towards the mainland, analysts say, adding that the US is unlikely to provide Taiwan with more sophisticated arms or further increase its defence commitment to the island.

'Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the US has committed to defend Taiwan, but Washington has never sought to maintain a cross-strait military balance as it will only result in an arms race between the two sides,' said Arthur Ding Shu-fan, secretary general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei. The Taiwan Relations Act was instituted shortly after Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taipei in 1979.

Since 1989, mainland defence budgets have grown by double-digit percentages each year, while the island's have dwindled to single-digit growth.

Despite warming cross-strait relations since Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008, adopting a policy of engaging Beijing, the mainland still has some 1,300 missiles aimed at the island. Nor has the mainland revoked its Anti-Secession Law, which authorises the People's Liberation Army to attack Taiwan should it declare formal independence from the mainland.

The US has repeatedly expressed concern over the mainland's rapid arms build-up and the tilting of the cross-strait balance towards Beijing.

In 2008, the administration of former US president George W. Bush approved a US$6.5 billion arms package for Taiwan. That was almost half the US$11 billion package Bush previously consented to in 2001 that was deferred due to arguments over the budget in Taiwan. The 2008 package included three Patriot PAC-3 missile defence systems and 66 older versions of F-16 fighter jets.