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COMMENTARY Military exchanges part of delicate balancing act By Richard Halloran |
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In the seas around the U.S. island Guam, a delegation of 10 Chinese army, navy, and air force officers watched three American aircraft carriers and other armed forces go through strenuous training paces last week.
At the same time in Beijing, the retired chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, met with Gen. Liang Guanglie, chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army. They discussed anti-terrorism, nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and regional security, according to the official PLA Daily newspaper.
These were the latest military exchanges to which U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and PLA leaders agreed during Rumsfeld's visit to China last fall. A crucial U.S. objective in exposing Chinese to U.S. military operations is to avert a Chinese miscalculation about U.S. capabilities.
These exchanges, in turn, are part of the most delicate and difficult balancing act for the United States in Asia, which is to keep the peace between the People's Republic of China and the island nation of Taiwan. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan while the U.S. is committed to help Taiwan defend itself.
"We are trying our best to have both sides understand the true role we are playing," says Adm. William Fallon, who commands U.S. forces in the Pacific and Asia.
Fallon, the senior U.S. military officer responsible for executing what he called a policy of "evenhandedness," said in an interview: "We want to do whatever we can to prevent the PRC from attacking (Taiwan) militarily. On the other hand, we are trying to encourage the people of Taiwan to figure out some way in which they can reach a long-term accommodation with the PRC."
That balance has been sought since 1979, when President Jimmy Carter switched U.S. diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. A displeased Congress responded by passing the Taiwan Relations Act to insist that whatever administration was in office in Washington would take PRC threats to Taiwan seriously.
Today, the rivalry between Taiwan and China has become more intense, and the U.S. more engaged, for two reasons:
For America, hostilities between China and Taiwan would almost certainly draw the U.S. into a war that would be more destructive than the Korean War of 1950-53, in which 54,246 Americans died and 103,284 were wounded, or the war in Vietnam from 1954 to 1972, in which 58,209 Americans died and 153,303 were wounded.
In the interview, Fallon said the U.S. had moved toward an uneasy balance.
"From my perspective," he said, "we are better off today than we were a year ago."
He said that when he visited China last month for the second time, he found "the tension levels have ameliorated over the past year. They have not ratcheted up their declarations. That's helpful because, in the absence of that tension, there are more opportunities to work things out."
About Taiwan, he cautioned, "they should not have unrealistic expectations that, no matter what they do, we are going to come to their defense should they take steps that might provoke (China)," meaning seeking formal independence. Fallon also criticized Taiwan for not spending enough on defense or to improving its defenses.
"To their credit," he said, "they appear now to recognize this. The military people get it and have taken steps, in my view, to start addressing some of these issues."
The admiral did not mention President Chen Shui-bian, who has advocated Taiwan independence.
On another front, Fallon has been the target of a whispering campaign in Washington where so called "China hawks" such as Michael Pillsbury, who consults widely on China, and retired Army Col. Larry Wortzel of the conservative Heritage Foundation have complained that Fallon's plans for exchanges with China give away too much.
Fallon responds: "I will do the things that I believe are correct. I certainly understand the policies of the administration. I certainly understand the guidance of my boss, the secretary (of Defense)."
In reply to an e-mailed query, a spokesman for Rumsfeld, Eric Ruff, pointed to Rumsfeld's agreement with Chinese leaders and said: "Admiral Fallon is following up on these."
Richard Halloran is a Honolulu-based journalist and former New York Times correspondent in Asia. His column appears Sundays in the Focus section.
