Taiwan’s arms sales concerns will be conveyed, ex-US defence chief says

Mark Esper, the former defence secretary under Donald Trump, is on a four-day visit to Taiwan
Meetings with Taiwanese officials revealed concerns about the speed of arms sales, which he will relay to Washington, Esper says

Taiwan

Reuters

Published: 2:21pm, 21 Jul 2022

Why you can trust SCMP

Former US defence secretary Mark Esper, who is currently visiting Taiwan, said he would take back to Washington the island’s concerns about the speed of arms sales and the need to get greater access to weapons like portable missiles.

Taiwan has previously talked of problems accessing some US weapons it has on order, like shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and has complained of stepped-up military pressure from Beijing to force it into accepting its sovereignty claims.

The missiles are in great demand in Ukraine, where they have been keeping Russian aircraft at bay, but US supplies have shrunk and producing more of the anti-aircraft weapons has faced significant hurdles due to limited manufacturing capacity.

Esper, who arrived in Taipei on Monday under the auspices of the Atlantic Council think-tank, has had meetings with senior Taiwanese leaders including President Tsai Ing-wen.

He said he did not get the sense that Taiwanese officials were frustrated at what arms were on offer from Washington.

“I didn’t pick up any frustration other than the speed at which we conduct arms sales,” he told reporters in Taipei. “There was an expression of the need to get greater access to weapons such as the Javelin and the Stinger.”

The Javelin is an anti-tank weapon that Taiwan also uses, and is being used in Ukraine.

“I think there was a concern about the supply chains and supply lines. That’s an issue that my delegation and I decided to take back and to share with the right people in [Washington].”

Mark Esper meets Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei on July 19. Photo: Handout via Reuters

Esper served from 2019 to 2020 under former president Donald Trump, whose administration approved billions of US dollars worth of arms sales to Taiwan.

The United States is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, but has also been prodding the government to focus more on asymmetric warfare – where a smaller force employs unconventional tactics against a larger enemy – using more mobile weapons, to make the island harder to attack, something Tsai has said she is prioritising.

Esper said Taiwan was never going to be able to match Beijing in terms of conventional power, and should be studying how Ukraine has fought Russia using asymmetric strategies.

“You don’t do asymmetric warfare with fighter jets. That doesn’t mean it can’t be part of a more comprehensive strategy, but you have to build the asymmetric capabilities first.”