Taiwan Touchdown. The White House signaled its support last Friday for helping Taiwan buy “U.S.-made fighter aircraft” in the near future to help counter China’s military. Robert Nabors, director of the White House’s Office of Legislative Affairs, told Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) his proposal to modernize Taiwan’s air force with new F-16C/Ds “warrants serious consideration.” Cornyn, after hearing from the Obama administration on the Taiwan fighter sales, lifted his hold on the nomination of Mark Lippert to be assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs. The Senate confirmed Lippert in the position last Thursday. In a letter to Cornyn last Friday, Nabors said: “We are committed to assisting Taiwan in addressing the disparity in numbers of aircraft through our work with Taiwan’s defense ministry on its development of a comprehensive defense strategy vis-a-vis China. This work will be a high priority for a new assistant secretary of defense in his dialogue on force transformation with his Taiwan counterparts. The assistant secretary, in consultation with the inter-agency and the Congress, will play a lead role as the administration decides on a near-term course of action on how to address Taiwan’s fighter gap, including through the sale to Taiwan of an undetermined number of new U .S.-made fighter aircraft.”