On Sunday, the White House released a brief memo stating that President Biden approved $567 million in new military aid for Taiwan, a move that has angered China.
The memo said Biden authorized Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “direct the drawdown of up to $567 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan.”
The memo offered no details on what types of weapons would be sent to Taiwan. Earlier this month, a US official told Defense News that the military aid package for Taiwan was set to be approved and said it would fund training, stockpiles, anti-armor weapons, air defense, and multi-domain awareness, but they wouldn’t be more specific.
The military aid is being provided through the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows the president to ship weapons directly from US military stockpiles. Congress has authorized the provision of $1 billion in PDA for Taiwan each year, and the $95 billion foreign military aid bill Biden signed in April included $1.9 billion that could be used to replenish weapons sent to Taiwan.
Since Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979, the US has always sold weapons to Taiwan, but it did not provide weapons free of charge or finance the purchases until last year, which marked a significant escalation of US support for the island.
On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry strongly denounced the new military aid for Taiwan. “This once again shows that the separatist moves for ‘Taiwan independence’ and connivance and support for such moves from US-led external forces are the biggest threat facing cross-Strait peace and stability and cause the greatest disruption to the real status quo in the Taiwan Strait,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian.
“We urge the US to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués, and stop arming Taiwan in any form. No matter how many weapons the US provides to the Taiwan region, it will never weaken our firm will in opposing ‘Taiwan independence,’ and safeguarding China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Lin added.
Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping, frequently tell their US counterparts that Taiwan is the “first red line that must not be crossed” in US-China relations, but the Biden administration continues to ignore the Chinese concerns.
