The Trump administration has announced a massive package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than USD 10 billion that includes medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones, drawing an angry response from China.
The State Department announced the sales late Wednesday during a nationally televised address by President Donald Trump, who made scant mention of foreign policy issues and did not speak about China or Taiwan at all. US-Chinese tensions have ebbed and flowed during Trump’s second term, largely over trade and tariffs but also over China’s increasing aggressiveness toward Taiwan, which Beijing has said must reunify with the mainland.
If approved by Congress, it would be the largest-ever US weapons package to Taiwan, exceeding the total amount of USD 8.4 billion in US arms sales to Taiwan during the Biden administration. The eight arms sales agreements announced Wednesday cover 82 high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, and 420 Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS — similar to what the US had been providing Ukraine during the Biden administration to defend itself from Russia — worth more than USD 4 billion.
They also include 60 self-propelled howitzer systems and related equipment worth more than USD 4 billion and drones valued at more than USD 1 billion. Other sales in the package include military software valued at more than USD 1 billion, Javelin and TOW missiles worth more than USD 700 million, helicopter spare parts worth USD 96 million and refurbishment kits for Harpoon missiles worth USD 91 million.
The eight sales agreements amount to USD 11.15 billion, according to Taiwan’s Defence Ministry.
The State Department said the sales serve “US national, economic, and security interests by supporting the recipient’s continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability.” “The proposed sale(s) will help improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance, and economic progress in the region,” the statements said.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry in a statement Thursday expressed gratitude to the US over the arms sale, which it said would help Taiwan maintain “sufficient self-defence capabilities” and bring strong deterrent capabilities. Taiwan’s bolstering of its defence “is the foundation for maintaining regional peace and stability,” the ministry said.
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung similarly thanked the US for its “long-term support for regional security and Taiwan’s self-defence capabilities,” which he said are key for deterring a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, the body of water separating Taiwan from China’s mainland.
The arms sale comes as Taiwan’s government has pledged to raise defence spending to 3.3 per cent of the island’s gross domestic product next year and to reach 5 per cent by 2030. The boost came after Trump and the Pentagon requested that Taiwan spend as much as 10 per cent of its GDP on its defence, a percentage well above what the US or any of its major allies spend on defence.
The demand has faced pushback from Taiwan’s opposition KMT party and some of its population.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te last month announced a special USD 40 billion budget for arms purchases, including to build an air defence system with high-level detection and interception capabilities called Taiwan Dome. The budget will be allocated over eight years, from 2026 to 2033.
The US boost in military assistance to Taiwan was previewed in legislation adopted by Congress that Trump is expected to sign shortly.
Last week, the Chinese embassy in Washington denounced the legislation, known as the National Defence Authorization Act, saying it unfairly targeted China as an aggressor. The US Senate passed the bill Wednesday.
China sharply criticises US
BEIJING, DEC 18 (PTI): China on Thursday sharply criticised the US for its plan to sell massive advanced weapons worth USD 11.1 billion to Taiwan, saying Washington’s move “grossly violates” the one-China principle and infringes on its sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.
US President Donald Trump has approved the arms package for Taiwan, which, if cleared by the US Congress, would mark Washington’s largest-ever arms sale to the island. The development comes amid Taipei’s concerns over a potential invasion by China, which claims the self-governing island as part of its mainland.
Much on the expected lines, China sharply criticised the US, saying Washington “blatantly announced its plan to sell massive advanced weapons to China’s Taiwan region” and sends a “gravely wrong signal to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces”.
“China firmly opposes and strongly condemns it,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a media briefing here, reacting to Trump’s approval of the arms sale. “This move grossly violates the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués, infringes on China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
The arms sale aids Taiwan’s independence forces’ plans to turn the island into a “powder keg”, Guo said.
“China will take resolute and strong measures to defend its national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” he said. If approved by Congress, as is likely given Taiwan’s strong bipartisan support, the package would exceed the USD 8.4 billion in arms sold to Taiwan during the Biden administration, a New York Times report said.
And it would be equivalent to more than half the USD 18.3 billion in arms sold to Taiwan during President Trump’s first term in office.
The arms sales cleared by the US State Department include more than USD four billion each for high mobility artillery rocket systems, known as HIMARS, and M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, USD 700 million worth of Javelin and TOW anti-armour missiles, as well as Altius kamikaze drones made by the military technology company Anduril.
In a statement on its website, the Pentagon’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency said the proposed sale would serve US interests by supporting Taiwan’s “continuing efforts to modernise its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability.”
Taiwan’s defence ministry said the weapons package would provide “strong deterrence and deterrence combat capabilities” and “asymmetric combat advantages.”
The arms sales to Taiwan comes in the backdrop of rising China-Japan tensions over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks in parliament on November 7 that a Taiwan contingency could be a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan that may lead to action from the country’s defence forces in support of the US.
Her remarks angered China, which demanded Takaichi retract her statement.
On Thursday, Guo criticised Japan’s move to develop the easternmost island of Okinawa for the deployment of a mobile surveillance radar unit to monitor Chinese aircraft carriers and planes.
The Japanese side kept strengthening targeted military deployment near the Taiwan region and even claimed it would deploy mid-range missiles, he said.
“This time, it went even further by deploying a radar unit and troops to secretly monitor its neighbour,” Guo said.
“Given the erroneous and dangerous remarks made by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Taiwan, we must question: Is the Japanese side making trouble and provocations at one’s doorstep to find a pretext for its military build-up and missions overseas?” he asked.