Global Courant 2023-05-18 00:21:55
The United States is planning to provide military aid to Taiwan through the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), a tool that allowed the Biden administration to send weapons to Ukraine without Congressional intervention — and China doesn’t like that at all.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday that the US will soon send additional security assistance to Taiwan through the PDA approved by Congress last year. The White House said earlier this month that it will send $500 million worth of arms aid to Taiwan using the PDA.
According to a US government website, the PDA is a valuable tool of US foreign policy in crisis situations because it enables the rapid delivery of defense items and services from Department of Defense stockpiles to foreign countries and international organizations to respond to unforeseen emergencies.
“Such assistance can begin within days or even hours of approval,” the US government said said in a factsheet on May 9.
Last year, the US Congress raised the limit on the PDA from $100 million to $11 billion for fiscal year 2022 after war broke out in Ukraine. Since last August, the Biden administration has used the tool 37 times to deliver military aid to Ukraine.
The Volcano minelaying system is one of the US defensive weapons likely to be sent to Taiwan. Photo: YouTube
“China is deeply dissatisfied and firmly opposed to this, and has expressed diplomatic displeasure with the US,” said Tan Kefei, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense. said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“The US has continuously strengthened its military ties with the authorities of the Democratic Progress Party (DPP), strengthened military ties and substantial relations between the two sides, shattered the basis of China-US relations, and strengthened peace and stability in undermine the Taiwan Strait,” Tan said. said. “This is a very wrong and dangerous move.”
Tan said the DPP and Taiwanese separatists will head for a dead end if they try to use US aid, including weapons, to promote Taiwan’s independence. He said the Taiwan issue is an insurmountable red line in China-US relations and the US will never be able to reverse the course of history.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will continuously strengthen its military training and preparations, resolutely destroy any form of Taiwanese independence and attempts at outside interference, and protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Tan said.
Pandora’s box
Following Tan’s comments, the headline of a article widely circulated on social media on Wednesday, he blared, “Biden will use the PDA to send US troops to Taiwan! The Department of Defense has issued strong warnings! The situation is serious; China has prepared for the worst!”
Using the PDA is like opening Pandora’s box, an unnamed author writes in the article, explaining that the authority will allow the US government to provide military aid directly to the Taiwanese government. regional conflicts during an emergency,” he says.
The writer says that Tan’s strong words actually mean that “the Chinese army has already prepared for war and cannot be blamed for not issuing warnings before taking action.”
“If the reunification of Taiwan is hindered, the US had better be prepared for the loss of Japan and South Korea, or else it should not provoke China,” he says. “The current situation has become very serious. One can accidentally shoot while polishing a gun. It refers not only to the Taiwan Strait, but also to the Korean Peninsula.”
A military columnist from Shanghai say in an article that the US is considering using the PDA for Taiwan because it wants to compensate the island after it failed to deliver 66 units of F-16V fighters on time.
He says the weapons the US will be sending to Taiwan are likely to be defensive weapons, such as FIM-92 Stinger, FGM-148 Javelin and the M136 Volcano Vehicle-Launched Scatterable Mine System, rather than offensive weapons.
The FIM-92 Stinger missile defense system. Photo: US Military News
US troops in Taiwan
Citing unnamed US officials, the Wall Street Journal reported in October 2021 that some two dozen US Department of Defense special operations troops had been deployed to train Taiwan’s armed forces. On February 23 of this year, the same newspaper reported that the US would send 100 to 200 troops to Taiwan in the coming months to help train the island’s military.
This came after the US Congress last December has passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorized $10 billion in security assistance and accelerated arms procurement for Taiwan.
Taiwan’s Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said on May 4 that Taiwan had ordered 66 units of F-16V fighters from Lockheed Martin in the US, but delivery of the first batch of the jets has been delayed to the third quarter of 2024 from the last quarter of 2024. quarter of this year, as production was affected by the pandemic.
Warnings from Japan
The Taiwan issue is expected to be one of the main topics of discussion at the G7 summit, to be held in Tokyo between May 19 and 21.
“Unilaterally changing the status quo by force should not be allowed anywhere in the world,” said Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister. told Nikkei in an interview on Monday. “The security environment around Japan is changing rapidly. And it’s getting more and more complex,” he says.
Kishida said North Korea is launching missiles with an unprecedented frequency, while “unilateral changes to the status quo” have also been forcibly made in the South China and East China seas. He also called on Russia and China to actively conduct joint military exercises in Asia.
China responded quickly. “As the host of the upcoming G7 summit, Japan has fueled and created bloc clashes, undermining the interests of the region,” said Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry. said on Tuesday. “China is firmly against it.”
Wang said that people in Japan who argue that “any contingency for Taiwan is a contingency for Japan” are the ones who want to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
Read: PLA is abuzz in Taiwan as US gunmakers keep an eye on the island
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3
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