China Pushes Back on Massive $385 million US Arms Sale to Taiwan

The following piece, written by Jim Morris, first appeared on Warrior Maven, a Military Content Group member website.

China is blasting the United States after the Biden administration approved $385 million in arms sales to Taiwan.

On Monday, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense accused the US of breaking the country’s one-China policy and endangering peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

“We are strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposed to it and have lodged stern representations with the US side,” said Senior Colonel Wu Qian.

On November 29, the State Department okayed the sale. According to the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, it includes $320 million in spare parts and other support for F-16 fighter jets and Active Electronically Scanned Array Radars. Taiwan also will spend $65 million on improved mobile subscriber equipment, a tactical communications system whose primary contractor is General Dynamics.

In October, the US approved a $2 billion arms package for Taiwan that includes three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) units, which Ukraine has used effectively in its war with Ukraine. According to Reuters, Australia and Indonesia are the only other countries in the region that are fielding NASAMS.

Taiwan says the new system would help its air defense capabilities in the face of increasing Chinese military maneuvers.

Even though the US and Taiwan have no formal diplomatic relations, Washington is required by law to provide the islands with weapons to defend itself – much to the unhappiness of Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own.

The Global Times, the English-language newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, blasted the US for what it called a “notorious record on arms sales to the Taiwan region.”

“While claiming to maintain peace and promote stability, it has, in fact, been meddling in internal affairs and undermining peace, which the international community has long recognized,” the paper said on Monday.

There have been multiple reports that China’s leader Xi Jinping has told the Chinese military it must be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.

Last month at a security conference, Admiral Samuel Paparo, the head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, said, “The closer we get to it, the less relevant that date is. We must be ready today, tomorrow, next month, next year and onwards.”

Paparo is concerned Russia will help China cut into US naval superiority in the Pacific.

“I expect Russia to provide submarine technology to the PRC that has the potential of closing America undersea dominance over the PRC,” he said.

In June, China celebrated the 70th anniversary of its navy by giving the public a brief look at its newest submarine. Experts told the Global Times the vessel has a unique design that gives it additional stealth capabilities, and say that it is already operational.