Two days ago, the White House agreed to sell three items of advanced weapons to Taiwan, and on Tuesday (13th) the Foreign Press reported that it had agreed to sell more weapons to Taiwan, including Reaper drones (MQ-9) and shore-mounted harpoon anti-ship missiles (CDCM), five arms sales have been notified to Congress. Taiwan’s military said it would make an announcement in due course after receiving the official notification. The DPP legislator Wang Dingyu analyzed that the new arms sale allows Taiwan’s defense distance and accuracy to increase significantly, and if China violates Taiwan by force, the Taiwan military can annihilate 70% of the PLA at sea.
In Taiwan, there has been no official comment on the reported arms sale, and the Ministry of National Defense said it would make an announcement in due course after receiving an official notification.
According to foreign news reports, the U.S. State Department on Monday (12) agreed to sell weapons to Taiwan, including: Lockheed Martin (Lockheed Martin) production of “high-mobility multiple rocket systems” (HIMARS), Boeing production of “range-extending type of land attack missile” (SLAM-ER), as well as devices on the F-16 fighter aircraft external sensor pods, images and data from the fighter aircraft instantly back to the ground.
On Tuesday, the MQ-9B Large UAV and Harpoon CDCM were added to the list. A total of five arms sales have been informally notified to Congress.
Taiwan Legislative Yuan National Defense Committee convenor, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Wang Dingyu said that the recent arms sales show that the sale of U.S. weapons to Taiwan has become normalized. Unlike before, when packages had to be accumulated, sometimes the wait was 15 years for a pending approval. Now it’s about 180 days for each individual item to be answered.
Wang Dingyu said: today the latter two (arms sales), to be sent to the U.S. State Department sent to the U.S. Congress, the U.S. military official said one sentence, he said, the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, of course, do not need the CPC to express their views, and the quality of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, will be in accordance with the CPC’s threat to Taiwan quality and quantity to enhance. In fact, this phrase is a direct statement and implementation of the August 17 Communiqué. These two major structures are a very important basic structure for Taiwan’s defense military procurement.
Wang Dingyu pointed out that the weapons recently sold by the United States, whether the Harpoon series or the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), have three characteristics in common.
The first feature is long range, we have not been able to obtain weapons beyond the straits, but we are now easily more than three hundred kilometers in the case of military sales, can be heavy layers of deterrence, can be pushed into the enemy’s territory, making their build-up difficult, can be effective proactive defense. The second keyword is called precision, and the precision of the weapons we have now is improving across the ages. The third keyword is linkage, and the weapon systems we have acquired in Taiwan will be linked with partners and allies, which is a very important thing for future so-called group fighting, and even multi-angle and multi-level joint defense.
Wang Dingyu estimates that the new weapons, after integration, can destroy 70 to 75 percent of the enemy at sea.
In mainland China, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said Wednesday (March 14) in response to reports that the U.S. had approved the sale of weapons to Taiwan that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was colluding with foreign powers to seek independence by force, which would only bring deep disaster to the people of Taiwan.
In addition, the Japanese media “Yukiji Fuji” reported that the Trump administration intends to overturn the “one China” principle, and surprise visit to Taiwan and recognition of Taiwan, or possibly by Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Pompeo on behalf of the visit to Taiwan, reported that the European Union and allies have agreed to the U.S. action.
Taiwan’s representative to the U.S., Hsiao Mei-chin, said in response to media inquiries that she had not heard the report and could not comment on the interaction with U.S. officials.
Director of the North American Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hsu Yu-tien said that inviting foreign dignitaries to visit Taiwan has always been a goal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and if there are actual cases, we will share them with the public, but if not, we will stop at the report.
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