Tensions on the Korean Peninsula and Chinese ballistic missile deployment have highlighted Taiwan’s need for a missile defense system, according to Taiwanese President Chen Shui-ban (see GSN, Feb. 13).

“The North Korea missile incident reflects the gravity, importance and urgency of the missile defense system proposed by the U.S. government,” Chen said (see GSN, Feb. 25).  “North Korea test-fired a missile into the Sea of Japan and communist China has deployed missiles along its coasts.  These are problems we must all face seriously,” he added (see GSN, Sept. 10, 2002).

Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Stokes, the Defense Department’s Taiwan desk officer, earlier this month said that Taiwan faces “the most daunting conventional ballistic missile threat in the world.”

Washington has urged Taiwan to bolster its own missile defenses, Reuters reported (Reuters/South China Morning Post, Feb. 25).

China, meanwhile, might be willing to side with the United States more on the North Korean and Iraqi situations in exchange for decreased military equipment sales to Taiwan, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The United Daily News, a Taiwanese paper, reported last week that China had withdrawn missiles that target the island nation and returned them to a base in China’s interior.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had no information of such a move.  A Pentagon official said China is adding about 75 missiles a year to the arsenal facing Taiwan (Hamish McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 26).

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