Month: October 2005

In the old days of school bullying, you gotta pay to get protected. Bullies don’t protect you out of goodness of their hearts. And that was just the way it was.

For years, Taiwan has been buying used, outdated and retired military equipment from the United States for almost the price of brand new ones.

A research report titled “Trade in Conventional Weapons by Developing Countries” released recently by a research department of the US Congress lists in detail stage by stage the amount of money spent on arms purchases by principal countries and regions of the world. The report shows that in the eight years from 1996 to 2003, the total amount of arms purchase by Taiwan approaches US$20 billion, ranking second in the world.
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Statistics show that over 95 percent of various types of weapons purchased by Taiwan came from the United States.
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Ku Chung-lien, Taiwan’s former “navy commander-in-chief” and current “legislative council member”, was indignant at this, saying that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities only know how to latch onto the Americans, thus turning Taiwan into the “Americans’ salvage station”.

The United States has been shoveling aging American military equipment down the throats of the Taiwanese people in the name of keeping the Taiwan Straight safe. At the same time, the military sales representatives never forget to tell the people of Taiwan to shove the peace, or, wait, democracy, up in their own asses if they don’t keep buying.

An excerpt from the Washington Post:

Richard Lawless, the Pentagon’s deputy undersecretary for Asian and Pacific affairs, told a Taiwan television network Tuesday that if the purchase of planes, missiles and submarines is not approved before the end of this year, there will be “serious repercussions” for the United States and Taiwan.
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The delay and uncertainty have become a sore point for the Bush administration, which first approved $20 billion to $30 billion in arms sales to Taiwan in 2001. Since then, with growing frustration, Pentagon officials have been urging the island to come up with the money to make a purchase.

So when America talks about spreading democracy to every corner of the world, it’s only valid if whoever they are helping to keep the “freedom” is willing to pony up the cash for it. After all, freedom and democracy always come with a “price”.

I don’t know a whole lot about international arms trade or politics around it, and I don’t mean to oversimplify, but it looks like unless Taiwan pays up, United State may be conveniently preoccupied with other things when Taiwan is in trouble. Is the freedom in Taiwan, in essence, bought? Without money, would United States have protected Taiwan in the name of protecting justice, freedom and democracy? If Taiwan spends 95% of its arms purchases with other countries instead of with the United States, would the United States still fuss about this whole issue about Taiwan not defending itself?

I may be biased. But something smells fishy about the Bush Administration being so pushy on something the United States obligated itself into doing, which at the time, was for the interest of truly protecting the freedom and democracy of Taiwan.