William Brent Christensen, director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto official U.S. representative office in Taiwan, said this year’s planned U.S. military sales to Taiwan total $11.8 billion, the highest annual defense purchase in Taiwan’s history in a single year. He said U.S. military sales to Taiwan have bipartisan support.
The U.S. Republicans and Democrats support the arms sales to Taiwan and are also enforcing the U.S. Taiwan Relations Act, Kazuhiro said at a public event on November 28. Kazuhiro made the remarks Saturday at a seminar of the Republic of China Association of International Relations in Taiwan.
Kazuhiro also said the U.S. will have a $5.2 billion arms sale to Taiwan next year. However, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense clarified on Sunday that it has no plans to propose a new $5.2 billion major military purchase to the United States next year.
Sunday Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense in response to media reports “Taiwan is the largest buyer of U.S. arms sales, this year, the average burden on the people of Taiwan $ 14,500,000,” said in a news release on its official website, the U.S. side this year on the MK-48 heavy wire-guided torpedoes and other seven arms sales to Taiwan totaling more than $ 5.5 billion, to inform the U.S. Congress, the U.S. side based on “The Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances provide for the sale of defensive weapons to Taiwan, which will help strengthen Taiwan’s overall defense capabilities and ensure peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region.
Since the beginning of this year, the U.S. Trump administration has approved several major arms sales to Taiwan. Beijing has expressed strong opposition to this.
Earlier, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said, “The U.S. arms sale to Taiwan seriously violates the one-China principle and the provisions of the three U.S.-China joint communiques, seriously endangers China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, seriously challenges China’s core interests, and seriously undermines Sino-U.S. military relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which China resolutely opposes and strongly condemns. “
The Chinese Communist government in Beijing considers Taiwan to be part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under its jurisdiction, a province of China to be recovered. Taipei argues that the Republic of China on Taiwan is a sovereign and independent state and has never been part of the PRC.
The CCP has repeatedly stated that it does not rule out the use of force to seize Taiwan and complete its so-called reunification of the motherland. The United States insists that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should resolve their differences through peaceful negotiations, and it opposes any unilateral change in the status quo in the Taiwan Strait by force or threat of force.
The Taiwan Relations Act explicitly states that “any attempt to determine Taiwan’s future by non-peaceful means – including the use of economic boycotts and embargoes – will be considered a threat to peace and stability in the Western Pacific and is of grave concern to the United States.
In his remarks at the seminar on Saturday, Kazuhiro referred to the declassified document on the 1982 U.S.-China Joint Communiqué released by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) through its website in August and the six assurances given to Taiwan by then U.S. President Ronald Reagan. He said the United States will continue to fulfill its commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act.
Kazuhiro Kazu commended Taiwan’s outstanding record in responding to the novel coronavirus outbreak, noting that the signing of a statement in March on enhancing U.S.-Taiwan consultation and cooperation in responding to the outbreak demonstrates the commitment of both sides in this regard.
He added that Taiwan is a trusted partner for U.S. 5G communications technology and that five of Taiwan’s network providers are included in Secretary of State Pompeo’s Clean Internet Project. The goal of that project is to deny Chinese technology access to U.S. 5G networks.
Since the beginning of the year, Washington’s closeness to Taipei has increased dramatically as the U.S. and China have intensified their dispute over the spread of the epidemic, trade, and technology. This increase has been a source of great dissatisfaction and concern to the Chinese authorities.
The Chinese authorities have subsequently stepped up their threats of force against Taiwan, including frequent dispatches of military aircraft over the centerline of the Taiwan Strait, resulting in Taiwan having to frequently deploy fighter jets for emergency liftoffs in response.
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