The United States approved a potential US$385 million military aid package for Taiwan amid high tensions triggered by reports that the Pentagon was making plans to counter China in the event of a Taiwan crisis.
The Pentagon announced on November 29 that the US State Department had authorized the possible sale of spare parts for F-16 aircraft and radar to Taiwan for an estimated US$385 million.
According to the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the deal includes US$320 million in maintenance and spare parts for F-16 jets, Active Electronically Scanned Array Radars, and associated equipment.
The State Department also authorized the possible sale of upgraded mobile subscriber equipment and support to Taiwan for an estimated US$65 million, for which General Dynamics will be the prime contractor.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) said the equipment would assist in maintaining the F-16 fleet’s readiness and “build up a credible defense force.” The sales are scheduled to “take effect” within a month. The Ministry said in a statement: “Taiwan and the United States will continue to strengthen their security partnership and work together to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region.”
Notably, the new aid package comes just over a month after the US approved US$2 billion in arms sales to Taiwan in late October. At the time, reports noted that the potential sales package included three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and related equipment.
The latest announcement comes at a crucial time: it was made a day before Taiwan President Lai Ching-te embarked on his Pacific tour, which included stopovers at US territories Hawaii and Guam, which the Chinese leadership has lambasted.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning emphasized China’s opposition to Lai traveling through the US “under any name or pretext,” denouncing Washington for “condoning or supporting ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists and their activities in any form,” according to official media.
The US officially adheres to the ‘One China’ principle. In 1979, the US moved its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China. The TRA (Taiwan Relations Act) requires the US to have a policy “to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character” and “to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan.”
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee stated earlier that it had formed a task force to expedite the country’s military sales procedures to its overseas customers, which included Taiwan.
The US is arming Taiwan with MQ-9 drones, MANPADS, Patriot and NASAMS air defense systems, F-16 Viper fighter jets, HIMARS, and Abrams Main Battle Tanks (MBTs), to name just a few.
Several US military commanders and military pundits have warned that China is making all-round combat preparations and could launch an invasion of Taiwan before the end of this decade, likely in 2027.
China, on its part, considers Taiwan a renegade Chinese province and has vowed to unite it with the Chinese mainland by force if necessary. It fiercely opposes the arms assistance and has repeatedly accused Washington of turning Taiwan into a powder-keg nation.
Earlier this year, China said the arms sales “seriously interfere” in its internal affairs and “damage” China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. “The continued sale of arms by the United States to China’s Taiwan region is a serious violation of the one-China principle and the provisions of the three joint communiqués of the United States and China.”
That said, Beijing is likely to be more annoyed by the latest announcement, as it comes days after a news report alleged the US has plans to set up temporary military bases and missile units in the region in case of a Taiwan contingency.
Missile Basing Reports Causes Tensions
Citing unknown insider sources, Kyodo News reported on November 25 that the US military will establish temporary facilities in the Philippines and along the southwestern Nansei island chain of Japan to deploy missile units in the event of a crisis in the Taiwan Strait.
The report stated the deployment would be a component of the first joint action plan that the United States and Japan developed to address the situation involving China and Taiwan.
According to the source cited by the Japanese publication, the US Marine Littoral Regiment will be stationed along the chain of islands from the Japanese prefectures of Okinawa and Kagoshima to Taiwan and will be outfitted with a multiple-launch High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).
The source said, “Temporary bases will be established on inhabited islands of the island chain from an early stage, when a Taiwan contingency becomes highly imminent, based on U.S. military guidelines for dispatching Marines in small formations to several locations.”
The report states that the US Army will deploy the Multi-Domain Task Force’s (MTDF) long-range firing units in the Philippines. The MDTF is built to work in various environments, including information, cyber, space, land, air, and water. Additionally, the report notes that in the event of a Taiwan emergency, the United States will use its nine military facilities in the Philippines.
Essentially, in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a US Marine Corps unit armed with HIMARS would be rushed to the islands in southwest Japan that are near Taiwan and border the East China Sea, while a new US Army unit—which was established in part to stop China from closing off the South China Sea—would head to nearby military bases in the Philippines. If these claims were true, Tokyo, Manila, and the United States would all be embroiled in a battle over Taiwan.
However, neither country has so far expressed willingness to fight China alongside the US military in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
The report and alleged deployment plans were blasted by China, which said that the US was using Taiwan as an excuse to bolster its military deployment in the region.
When asked about the reports, Mao Ning, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, said, “The key to upholding cross-Straits peace and stability is to remain committed to the one-China principle. China firmly opposes relevant countries using the Taiwan question as an excuse to strengthen military deployment in the region, heighten tensions and confrontation, and disturb regional peace and stability.”
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