Arms sales to Taiwan hamper Sino-US ties

China and the United States signed a communique on the US' arms sales to Taiwan on Aug 17, 1982. The US government declared in the communique that it will reduce arms sales to Taiwan step by step.

However, since the George HW Bush administration sold 150 F-16 fighters worth US$6 billion to Taiwan in 1992, the US' arms sales to Taiwan sours sharply. The Bill Clinton administration sold $29 billion in arms to Taiwan, and the Barack Obama administration has so far declared it will sell $12.2 billion arms to the island.

The US says it is maintaining stability of the Taiwan Straits with the arms sales. In fact, the US politicians regard the arms sales as a card to use while dealing with China. They are being deceived by military-industry groups.

As peaceful development and unification gradually becomes a consensus of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, the US' excuses for the arms sales become more and more clumsy and self-deceiving. It is peace, not arms, that makes the Taiwan Straits stable.

Arms sales to Taiwan are already a burden for the US, as well as a ceiling that limits the development of Sino-US relations, the deepening of mutual trust, and bilateral cooperation.

Should we wait another 30 years to break the ceiling?