China's Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei warned U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman that the sales of Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles and other weapons to Taiwan would "cause consequences that both sides are unwilling to see," a ministry statement said Saturday.The Chinese are good at this game and I don't think we learn anything of use from these exchanges. We see what they want us to see.
The United States is Taiwan's most important ally and largest arms supplier, and it's bound by law to ensure the island is able to respond to Chinese threats.
China responds angrily to any proposed arms sale, however, and it also cut off military ties with the U.S. in 2008 after the former Bush administration announced a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan.
Washington has tried to use military visits to build trust with Beijing and learn more about the aims of its massive military buildup.
Worse, although unmentioned in the article, is that we pretend we can teach the PLA not to mess with us by showing how powerful we are. This faith in the power of these exchanges is wishful thinking at best and dangerous at worst:
The Chinese know we are technically more advanced. What they think is that we are too pampered to fight them. And seeing our nice barracks and PXs with Chanel No. 5 won't convince them that we are hard warriors able to absorb high casualties. Seeing our military up close will simply give them insights into fighting us or at least cause them to believe that they have insights into fighting us[.]
Like I wrote, the Chinese aren't learning what we are teaching them.
May the Chinese hold firm in their determination to halt military-to-military exchanges with us. We'd do better to aggressively do recon in areas the Chinese don't want us.
