US OKs military aid to Taiwan under programme usually reserved for sovereign nations
Biden administration has approved the first-ever US military transfer to Taiwan under a programme generally reserved for assistance to sovereign, independent states. The State Department notified Congress of the sale on Wednesday.
It said the material would «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 package is modest — only USD 80 million of what Congress had set aside as a potential USD 2 billion — but the implications of using the so-called Foreign Military Financing programme to provide it will likely infuriate China.
Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, has repeatedly not ruled out the use of force to reunite it with the mainland and vociferously protests all US arms sales to the self-governing island.
However, previous arms sales to Taiwan have been approved under other authorities that do not necessarily imply statehood. US officials were quick to say that the provision of FMF funding to Taiwan did not represent a change in policy.
It's a position the Chinese are sure to disagree with.
In explaining the change, two US officials said: «The United States has provided Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Taiwan for years. FMF simply enables eligible partner nations to purchase US defense articles, services, and training through either FMS or, for a limited number of countries, through the foreign military financing of direct commercial contracts (FMF/DCC) program.» The officials were not authorized to comment publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
But the language used implied that Taiwan is or could be compared to a «nation» or a «country» — something China has
