Taiwan groups, suspicious of China, seek U.S. help

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan lobby groups, suspicious of China and fearful of fast improving Sino-U.S. relations, urged U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday to stop Beijing's "growing military threat" against the island it claims as its own.

The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, recognising Beijing's "one China" policy, but is obliged by the 30-year-old Taiwan Relations Act to help defend the island and is its biggest arms supplier.

Advocacy groups, including the World Federation of Taiwan Organisations and a U.S.-based group representing 700,000 people, sent Obama and the U.S. Congress letters asking for stronger ties with Taipei, one of the signatories said in a statement.

"The Taiwan Relations Act has its limits mainly because the geopolitical environment today is more complex and differs from the one 30 ago," Bob Yang, president of the U.S.-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs, said in a statement.

"We urge the Obama administration and Congress to find ways that will enhance the U.S.-Taiwan relationship, arrest the Chinese growing military threat against Taiwan and strengthen Taiwan's international visibility."

Taiwan lobby groups fear the U.S. government will abandon Taiwan while cultivating stronger ties with economic powerhouse China and may not come to its rescue in an armed conflict.

China has claimed self-ruled Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (KMT) fled to Taiwan. China now has 1,050 to 1,500 missiles aimed the island, Taiwan officials say.

But political, trade and tourism ties have improved vastly since China-friendly Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou came to power in May.

U.S. officials have said Obama will maintain Washington's long-standing strong informal ties with Taiwan despite increasingly broad formal relations with Beijing, meaning little change from previous administrations.