The Biden administration has approved the first-ever military aid package for Taiwan using Foreign Military Financing (FMF), a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to buy US arms.
The Associated Press noted that FMF is typically reserved for sovereign, independent states, and the US does not recognize Taiwan as a country. US officials told AP that the only other time FMF has been used for a non-nation-state was assistance to the African Union, a bloc of 55 African states.
The FMF package is worth $80 million, but the administration did not disclose its contents in a notification to Congress. The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act included $2 billion in FMF funds for Taiwan. This marks the first time the funds have been used.
The assistance will infuriate China as Beijing is opposed to military ties between Washington and Taipei, especially new unprecedented types of support. In July, the Biden administration provided Taiwan with a $345 million arms package using the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) for the first time.
The PDA allows President Biden to send weapons directly from US military stockpiles, which is the primary way the US has been arming Ukraine. The 2023 NDAA includes $1 billion in PDA funds for Taiwan.
Since Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979, the US has sold weapons to Taiwan but has never financed the purchases or provided weapons free of charge until this year.
China hawks say the US needs to arm Taiwan “to the teeth” to prevent a Chinese attack on the island, but China has increased military pressure on Taiwan in response to the growing US military and diplomatic support for the island.
Our “leaders” live in a virtual reality world far, far removed from the physicality of what their blind ambition and egotistic formulations mean for the rest of us.
Agreed, … about as far removed from “democracy”/”We the people….” as the old Mikados
Taiwan is far away from China. It’s about the distance between Florida and California, or Sicily and Belgium. They have only 1/44th of China’s population. There is an ocean between the two, no land route. The only possible war is if China invaded Taiwan to finally follow up on its propaganda, going back to when Mao claimed his economic failure was because the resistance had brought all the gold to Taiwan and Taiwanese agents were sabotaging the economy.
China’s aggression is just a way to unite the people, especially young men looking for an easy enemy. Something to beat their chests about online, while ignoring the horrible work standards, where they even dump toxic waste on the floor in the factories where the workers have to walk. However, China won’t attack Taiwan despite what these mindless young men may wish, as the two countries have deep economic ties, with Taiwan investing more in China than the U.S. does, and China has invested $1 trillion in the U.S. China is completely dependent on its trade with the West. They have also repeatedly stated that they won’t attack Taiwan but wait for it to come back to China in some far-off future.
So it’s nothing at all like Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine has a quarter of Russia’s population and a straight route to Russia’s capital, with no natural obstacles in between. A Ukraine working with NATO to attack Russia means Russia can’t be defended. But above all the war is about the Kiev coup regime’s constant shelling of the Russian people in Donbass, which Zelensky ramped up to 100 times per day in the fall 2021, then to more than 1,400 times per day in February 2022, preparing for an invasion.
Distance from Mainland China to Taiwan is between 81 and 100 miles, depending on what source. Kind of like between Florida and Cuba. Quite a difference from your CA to FLA analogy (about 2,711 miles). Just sayin’….
Clearly, the Neo-Liberals want WWIII …..
Sociopath/psychopaths do exist and so do stupid voters.
I wonder if they considered the possibility that the DPP might lose the next election. Do they not realize that these arms might be used against our own forces one day?
Until there is a war on US soil the war mongering will continue , being of a certain age i hope i will live to see a military alliance between Russia / China and stop the yanks in their tracks , even the yanks aren`t stupid enough to take on China and Russia at the same time .
Maybe the US needs a major a– kicking, being a major arms dealer….
You can’t fight your way towards Peace, can you?
It needs a “deworming” more than anything, IMO.