MEMO POINTS:：An e-mail sent to US lawmakers outlined the benefits of the sale and asked why China was so opposed to Taiwan getting new F-16s if they were irrelevant(不洽當的)

Lockheed Martin Corp is helping arm US lawmakers (立法者)for a renewed(重新的) push to sell its new F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, not just US President(總統) Barack Obama’s administration’s(管理的經營的) planned US$5.3 billion upgrade of old ones.

A Lockheed Martin official(公務上的) last week e-mailed an unsigned(未簽名的) memo to lawmakers on Capitol Hill titled “Taiwan — The Benefit(利益) of New F-16C/Ds,” two congressional(國家立法機關) staff(職員) members said.

Lockheed’s memo to lawmakers was dated Sept. 22, a day after the administration(管理) told Congress that it was offering Taiwan a US$5.3 billion retrofit of 145 F-16A/B models sold in the 1990s. Administration officials said a decision had not yet been made on Taiwan’s five-year-old request for 66 new F-16C/D models valued at US$8.3 billion.

The Lockheed memo included “rebuttal points” (反駁點)to what Lockheed called the expected conclusion(結論) of a Pentagon report that the administration (管理)could use to try to defuse criticism(批評) of its decision not to release new F-16s to Taiwan.

Lockheed Martin neither confirmed nor denied having circulated the memo, a copy of which was obtained(得到) by reporters. It said a sale of F-16s would benefit not only the company, but generate(產生) more than 16,000 jobs in the US over five to six years, citing a study it had commissioned(受委任的).

Any questions regarding the sale of new F-16s to Taiwan should be referred to the governments of Taiwan and the US,” Laura Siebert, a Lockheed spokeswoman, added in an e-mail.

The company, the Pentagon’s largest supplier by sales, typically depicts(插畫) itself as a bystander in the foreign arms-sale process, patiently(耐心的) awaiting government decisions.

US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner said on Thursday that China was holding to its decades-old strategy of stealing US intellectual(理智的) property(財產), in a pointed statement reflecting(反射出) US officials’ growing impatience(不耐心的)with Beijing.

“They [China] have made possible systematic(有系統) stealing(偷竊) of intellectual(智力的) property of American companies and [they] have not been very aggressive(侵略的) to put in place the basic protections(保護) for property rights that every serious economy(節約) needs over time,” Geithner told a forum in Washington.

“We’re seeing China continue to be very, very aggressive in a strategy they started several decades ago, which goes like this: You want to sell to our country, we want you to come produce here ... if you want to come produce here, you need to transfer your technology(工藝學) to us,” Geithner said.

Although unusually direct, Geithner’s comments echo a common refrain from US officials and executives. US Ambassador(大使) to China Gary Locke (駱家輝), who has assailed() China in the past for its trade practices, has put the defense of US intellect(攻擊)tual property among his chief priorities(時間方面居先).

China has said it would drop some of its “indigenous innovation” rules that have riled foreign companies who say access to government equipment(配備) and technology(工藝學) orders hinge on their transferring(調動) patents and other intellectual(智力的) property.

However, business associations(協會) in China argue that enforcement(實施) of Beijing’s promises has been spotty, particularly (特別是)at the local government level, hampering foreign companies’ access to a market estimated (估計)to be worth as much as US$1 trillion a year.