WASHINGTON, Sept 21: A senior Pentagon official bluntly warned Taiwan it must invest in its own defences against a growing threat from China if it expects the United States to come to its aid in a crisis.

Edward Ross, a top official with the Defence Security Cooperation Agency, lambasted Taiwan’s political leaders for turning a 10 billion dollar special defence budget into a ‘political football’.

In a speech in San Diego late on Monday to the US-Taiwan Business Council, Ross said US government officials, members of Congress and business people were increasingly questioning Taiwan’s commitment to its own defence.

“They ask us, ‘If Taiwan is not willing to properly invest in its own self-defence, why should we, the US, provide for its self-defence?’” he said.

“It’s a reasonable question.”

At a time when US troops are in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said, ‘an increasing number of Americans are asking hard questions about how much we are willing to sacrifice for the security and democracy of others’.

The United States in 2001 approved the sale of eight diesel electric submarines, 12 P3 surveillance planes and advanced Patriot missile defence systems.

But the special budget created to finance the acquisitions has failed to gain approval in the Taiwanese legislature.

President Chen Shui-bian also has consistently put economic and social spending ahead of defence, Ross said.

As Taiwan’s defence budgets have declined, China has sustained double digit increases in defence spending over the past decade, he said.

Taiwan appears to have ‘calculated US intervention heavily into their resource allocation equation and elected to reduce defence spending despite an ever prosperous and stable economy. And this short-change math does not work’, he said.

“You see, China is also doing the math and has accounted for the possibility of foreign intervention. Their conclusion: buy more submarines and anti-submarine cruise missiles.”

He said the United States, for its part, was watching China’s military modernization and the stalemate in Taiwan over defence spending — ‘and we’re doing our own math’.

“We do not live in a world of absolutes. And the time of reckoning is upon us,” he said.

“In the end, the US ability to contribute to Taiwan’s defence in a crisis is going to be measured against Taiwan’s ability to resist, defend and survive based on its own capabilities,” he said.

He said deterrence has been compromised by Taiwan’s steadily declining defence budgets and the erosion of its defence capabilities at a time when Beijing is building up its forces in the Taiwan Strait.

The trends have resulted ‘in a growing imbalance in critical areas such as missile and air defence and anti-submarine warfare’, he said.

Taiwan needs to build up reserves of critical munitions, and buy weapons systems to counter short term threats, Ross said.

“The great variables in this equation are time and capabilities,” he said.—AFP