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The history of the Clinton administration's $8.5 billion in arms sales and approvals to Taiwan has been marred by routine outcries from mainland China, which claims the U.S. is interfering in its internal affairs and threatening its national security by supplying its "wayward province." The People's Republic of China considers Taiwan to fall under its authority and views U.S. arms sales to the province as a primary obstacle in improving relations with the U.S. Taiwan's supporters argue that since it has free elections, a free press, a free market economy, and minimal human-rights violations (at least as opposed to the P.R.C.), the U.S. should support and strengthen it through arms sales. Taiwan was the leading recipient of U.S. foreign military sales in fiscal 1997, receiving $5.7 billion, or nearly one-third of the total deliveries.
The U.S. has continued arming Taiwan under the guise of maintaining military balance with the P.R.C., theoretically promoting peace through deterrence. The U.S. claims it supplies weapons to Taiwan in accordance with the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which recognizes the right of the U.S. to help Taiwan maintain a sufficient self-defense capability by providing it with weapons and assistance. The U.S. further justifies arms sales to Taiwan by contending that the agreement requires the U.S. to defend Taiwan if the province went to war with China. Complications arose when, in 1982, President Reagan signed a diplomatic communiqué with China calling for the U.S. to gradually reduce arms sales to Taiwan by 20 percent each year (adjusted to reflect inflation). The policy that evolved was called the Taiwan Bucket, which provides a yearly cap on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. President Bush breached this understanding significantly by approving the sale of 150 General Dynamics/Lockheed F-16 planes to Taiwan in 1992, and President Clinton further damaged it by approving the transfer of four Grumman E-2T airborne surveillance and tracking aircraft for Taiwan in early 1993. Both presidents made the decision because French and other European weapons companies were selling large amounts of arms to Taiwan -- and why should Europeans get all the gravy? In April 1994 the Clinton administration and Congress reached an agreement that opened the way for hundreds of millions of dollars in new U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. The Senate wanted to remove all limits on sales, but under the agreement, the China communiqué survived only as a general understanding, and Taiwan was allowed to buy specific new weapons systems.
In July 1998 the House and Senate reaffirmed the 1979 Taiwanese Relations Act, which simultaneously authorizes U.S. arms sales (for self-defense) and support for the peaceful resolution of intra-China disputes. Some people viewed this act as a necessary counterbalance to Clinton's remarks opposing Taiwanese independence during his 1998 trip to mainland China. As a result, the U.S. policy for selling arms to Taiwan strikes a precarious balance between continuing lucrative sales to the Taiwanese military and appeasing the mainland, while never selling enough to incur the P.R.C.'s full wrath. Clinton-era arms sales to Taiwan have included Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters, Raytheon Patriot air-defense missiles, attack and transport helicopters, and surface ships. In December 1996 the U.S. approved a $63 million contract for Boeing to produce 74 Avenger anti-aircraft missile systems for Taiwan. In March 1997 the U.S. agreed to sell Taiwan 54 McDonnell Douglas AGM-84A Harpoon missiles and 21 Bell AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters. In January 1998 the Pentagon announced a $300 million sale of three Knox-class frigates to Taiwan, bolstering its capability to defend against submarines. The Clinton administration has also sold Taiwan medium-range Standard missiles, helicopters, frigates, Phalanx close-in weapons systems, Harpoon missile launchers, rockets, rocket launchers, guided missiles, satellites, battle tanks, machine guns, smoke-grenade launchers, tactical-communication systems, trainer and fighter aircraft, and cannons. Because China-Taiwan talks on reunification have recently resumed, and because Taiwan needs a time-out to learn how to use all its recently acquired heavy arms, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan will likely diminish over the next three years, according a 1998 National Defense University report. --Monica Mehta Flags courtesy of World Flag Database
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MOTHER JONES BY E-MAIL
Direct government sales 
Government-approved sales