On Wednesday, the new head of the US’s de facto embassy in Taiwan vowed to President William Lai Ching-te that the US would provide strong military support for the island amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.
“First of all, and the most important thing, the US will strongly support Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities,” said Greene, who took his post as the head of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on Monday. “We both have common and long-term interests in peace and stability over the Taiwan Strait.”
According to Taipei Times, Greene touted the 15 arms sales for Taiwan that have been approved under the Biden administration. Last month, the State Department approved a $360 million sale for hundreds of armed drones and missile equipment.
The Biden administration has also taken the unprecedented step to provide military aid to Taiwan, which started in 2023. Since Washington severed diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979, the US has always sold weapons to Taiwan but never financed the purchases or provided them free of charge.
The administration has also taken steps to increase diplomatic support for Taiwan, which has also been reflected by an increase in congressional visits. These steps are being taken in the name of deterrence, but they have just increased tensions, as China has significantly stepped up military activity around Taiwan in response.
When Greene was the deputy chief of the AIT in 2021, he explained how the US began to view Taiwan differently during the Trump administration. He said when he first worked at the AIT 19 years prior, “everything we did related back to cross-Strait issues and how Taiwan fit into the US-China relationship.”
“In contrast, these past three years, our efforts have been overwhelmingly focused on deepening the bilateral US-Taiwan relationship,” Greene said. “This reflects a fundamental change in the US-Taiwan relationship. The United States no longer sees Taiwan as a ‘problem’ in our relations with China, we see it as an opportunity to advance our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
A “free and open Indo-Pacific” is a term the US has employed in recent years that essentially means a region where the US is the dominant military power and has more influence than China.
And so WWI begins again as WWIII. Alliances made. Weapons placed. Promises made. Just peachy.
Exactly. And people ask "why do you defend Putin?". I just notice that Putin is desperately fighting against the creation of a military block on its own borders and is being pushed into an alliance with China. Why is it "pro Putin" to state the obvious? Understanding Russia's oft expressed point of view is a question of being honest.
Who is going to slap Xi to wake him up? …Putin? …Nah. Putin needs to slap himself.
;-/
Why do you think it's Xi & Putin that need to wake up while Biden sends "Over 14,000" two thousand pound bombs for Netanyahu to drop on the 70% women & children of Gaza killing tens of thousands of them???? What is Xi doing that is 1/100th as malovent????
I was kidding of course. If Xi and Putin need to be woken up at this point, they never will.
The USA has no ambassador to Taiwan because it recognizes the island is part of China.
That rule only applies to countries that follow such rule.
Why doesn't Taiwan close the American Institute in Taiwan? What would it take to do this?
It’s kind of hard to close anything down, when they keep dropping suitcases full of cash.
It is hard when USA want to use it to aggravate China and use it for war on CHINA.
US OFFICE (defecto ambassy) is 100 miles from mainland China.That was the case for years,but now US Special forces are on an island which is less than 5 miles from mainland.So distance between China and US forces is less than 5 miles.This island is under control of TAIWAN. TREAD CAREFULLY BABY