Reports: Taiwan wants fewer new F-16s from US

{mosads}Taiwan’s request for the new fighters has been a point of
contention in U.S.-China relations, something that’s unlikely to change even
with a smaller request.

Congress has been critical of the Obama administration’s
unwillingness to sell Taiwan the new planes, however, and the House included
the 66 F-16 fighters in its 2013 defense authorization bill that passed in May.

In April, the Obama administration said it was considering
a change in policy toward selling the F-16C/Ds to Taiwan, leading Sen. John
Cornyn (R-Texas) to release a hold on a Pentagon nomination that he’d placed
due to the F-16s.

Administration officials also acknowledged in a report that
Taiwan’s fleet is inadequate to counter China in the Taiwan Strait.

The Taiwanese papers said the reduced F-16 request was due
to budgetary constraints, but the Liberty Times also quoted a source suggesting
that the reduction could also have been made so Taiwan could later purchase
F-35 fighters instead.