Donald Trump's administration has approved $1.3 billion worth of arms sales to Taiwan, a US government official said Thursday, in a move likely to provoke the ire of Beijing which considers the island a rebel province.
Announcement of the sale comes at a sensitive moment for the US and China, as President Trump is working to establish a partnership over trade differences and efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
The US is the island's most powerful ally and arms supplier despite having no official relations with Taipei after switching recognition to Beijing in 1979.
The latest plans are consistent with terms of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, the US official said, under which Washington keeps trade ties and sells Taipei weapons to “maintain a sufficient self-defence capability”.
The defence ministry said the sales will boost the island's air and sea combat capabilities.
The Trump administration has formally notified Congress of the defence sales comprised of seven parts, the US official said, which are “based on an assessment of Taiwan's defence needs” and include upgrading defence systems from analog to digital.
The last US arms sale to Taiwan was in December 2015.
This is notable that in March 2017, Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen launched the island's first ever home-grown submarine project Tuesday in the face of what the government says are growing military threats from China. The move comes after China sent its only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, through the Taiwan Strait in January, in one of a number of military drills held as relations deteriorate.
In 1978, China regarded itself as in a "united front" with the U.S., Japan, and western Europe against the Soviets and thus established diplomatic relations with the United States in 1979, supported American operations in Communist Afghanistan, and leveled a punitive expedition against Vietnam, America's main antagonist in Southeast Asia. In exchange, the United States abrogated its mutual defense treaty with the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan.
The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA; Pub.L. 96–8, 93 Stat. 14, enacted April 10, 1979; H.R. 2479) which President Carter signed on April 12th, 1979, is an act of the United States Congress. Since the recognition of the People's Republic of China, the Act has defined the substantial but non-diplomatic relations between the people of the United States and the people on Taiwan.