All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. The United States should meet an expected Taiwan request for an upgraded anti-missile system despite the risk Beijing might use this as a pretext to attack, a panel of leading U.S. security experts said on Thursday. The Stimson Center is an influential Washington-based public policy institute. Members of its study group included prominent consultants to the Pentagon and to U.S. intelligence.
China strongly opposes both systems.
It deems any transfer of TMD technology to Taiwan as a harmful poke in Chinese internal affairs and as a step toward restoring a U.S.-Taiwan defence partnership severed when Washington established formal ties with Beijing on Jan. 1, 1979. China also fears that TMD transfers to Taiwan could lead to a joint Northeast Asia missile defence network including the United States, Japan and South Korea, the working group's report said. Concerned about arms sales that would undercut the effectiveness of its own missile forces, Beijing further opposes TMD for Taiwan on the grounds that it would bolster pro-independence forces on the island, which China considers a renegade province. The panel said Washington should meet such requests by Taipei unless China's ballistic missile threat recedes. China has been adding about 50 short-range ballistic missiles a year across the Taiwan strait from Taiwan, the U.S. National Intelligence Council said last September.