The U.S. to send Taiwan military aid normally sent to sovereign countries
The U.S. has approved military related aid normally done for sovereign, independent, countries. This will involve the transfer of US military equipment to Taiwan and is approximately $80 million. Naturally, the Chinese Communist Party is not happy with this development, describing it as harming China’s sovereignty and that it undermined peace and stability in the vicinity of the Taiwan Strait.
From CNN:
The package — which is part of the State Department’s foreign military financing (FMF) program — totals $80 million and will be paid for by US taxpayers.
“FMF will be used to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities through joint and combined defense capability and enhanced maritime domain awareness and maritime security capability,” the department wrote in its notification to Congress that was reviewed by CNN.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed the first-ever transfer.
“Consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act and our longstanding one China policy, which has not changed, the United States makes available to Taiwan defense articles and services necessary to enable it to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability,” the spokesperson told CNN in a statement. “The United States has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which is critical to regional and global security and prosperity.”
The newest development in continued US support for Taiwan has drawn an angry response from China, which claims the self-governing island as its own.
China’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday expressed “strong dissatisfaction” and “firm opposition” at the arms sale, which it said had harmed “China’s sovereignty and security interests” and undermined “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
It urged the US to “cease enhancing US-Taiwan military connections and arming Taiwan” and “stop creating tensions across the Taiwan Strait,” ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular news conference.
China’s Defense Ministry also lashed out at the sale, saying the Chinese military will “take all necessary measures to resolutely counter this.”
The US has sold weapons to Taiwan in the past through a separate program called Foreign Military Sales (FMS). The FMF program will provide grant assistance, paid for by US taxpayers, to Taiwan in order to make those purchases.
CNN provides the balance of the story here.
Category: China, International Affairs, Military issues
$80 million is relatively insignificant and is more symbolic than anything
Yes, it is. It’s sending a message to China Joe is not actually in charge.
That wouldn’t paint the cabinets on the AEGIS system we
sold (gave) Japan.
Compared to how much we keep funneling away to Ukraine? Absolutely.
So, we continue to export inflation to counter China’s export of deflation?
60% of all the world’s people’s governments have had enough of our shit.
In other words, Triffin’s hammer is about to Paul Pelosi our nuts.
Plan accordingly.
So we ‘sell’ them weapons that we pay for?
WTF, over.
Dear China,
Chicoms be butthurt:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-warns-us-has-crossed-red-line-lethal-consequences/ar-AA1g6JDZ
Formosa the time since WW II, the island of Tiawan has been the American finger in the ChiCom eye.
Still can’t understand why the American Taxpayer has to support the defense of the world, but we aren’t defending the USA. I say SELL any weapon system, except the top tier that we maintain for our defense, to anybody that wants to BUY it.
I support the Taiwanese people, but do not think we should be “giving” anything to anybody. But I guess as long as the MIC is getting fat, Flag Ossifers have Board of Directors positions coming to them, and The Big Guy gets his 10% its all good.
To what end? We ensure global security simply because it benefits us to have a liberal world order- we set it up after WWII and it has led to the longest period of relative peace and prosperity for the most people the world has ever seen. The US has benefitted from this more than anyone else. We are a maritime power. Our navy has kept the global commons open for about 80 years, and these days China is really the only threat to that, especially in the Pacific. We have also served, more or less, as an example that a liberal (lower case l) democracy is a superior system to a socialist or communist tyranny. China is trying to supplant the US in that role in the Pacific, and while they offer some short term benefit to the nations that go with their program, the long term outcome is being under the CCP’s thumb and a gradual end to the World America Made (read Kagan’s book). We support Taiwan for several reasons, not the least of which is showing the People’s Republic of China (PRC) they can’t have their way in the world. It also shows our other allies that we will support them in crisis. Now, all we have to do is decide what our goals are. The Chinese have the advantage in that they can follow the same strategy for decades, while we have a semi-peaceful revolution every four years (every two if you think about it). Remember, the traditional European game of strategy is chess, the Chinese game is Go. If we don’t care about actual liberal trade markets and governance in the Pacific we should save some cash, wish Taiwan good luck, and spend INDOPACOM’s budget on something domestic. We could slash all the service budgets (no need for any of the Army, Navy, or Air Force Pacific components to have forward positioned forces), and we could slash the services by roughly half and save some serious money. I won’t speak for the other services, but the Army has about 6 brigades and thousands of support… Read more »
Let us take a look at that. Since 1945, the US has been in combat for more than 31 years. That does not seem like such a peaceful liberal panacea to me.
Go for it. The Chinamen are screwing with us, let us do everything we can to piss them off. They have a shit army anyway. Remember when they got their asses decisively kicked by the North Vietnamese national guard?