The United States has approved $2 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, including the first-time delivery to the self-ruled island of an advanced surface-to-air missile defense system, in a move that has drawn China\u2019s criticism. <\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s presidential office on Saturday thanked Washington for greenlighting the potential arms sales. Under the island\u2019s new president, Lai Ching-te, Taiwan has been stepping up defense measures as China increased its military threats against the territory it claims as its own. <\/p>\n
Beijing last week held\u00a0war games encircling Taiwan\u00a0for the second time since Lai took office in May. <\/p>\n
The US is Taiwan\u2019s strongest unofficial ally and its laws bound it to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. <\/p>\n
\u201cStrengthening Taiwan\u2019s self-defense capabilities is the foundation for maintaining regional stability,\u201d Taiwan\u2019s presidential spokesperson Karen Kuo said. <\/p>\n
China criticized the move, saying it undermined its sovereignty and security interests, was harming US-China relations and threatened peace across the Taiwan Strait, which separates China from Taiwan. <\/p>\n
\u201cChina strongly condemns and firmly opposes this and has lodged serious protests with the US,\u201d read a statement by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. \u201cWe will take resolute countermeasures and take all measures necessary to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.\u201d <\/p>\n
The potential sales package includes three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and related equipment valued at up to $1.16 billion, according to the US State Department\u2019s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. <\/p>\n
It also includes radar systems worth an estimated $828 million. <\/p>\n
The NASAMS system has been battle-tested in Ukraine and will help to strengthen the Taiwanese army\u2019s air defense capabilities, Taiwan\u2019s Defense Ministry said. <\/p>\n
China\u2019s war games last week were aimed at practicing the \u201csealing off of key ports and key areas\u201d around Taiwan, according to Chinese officials. Taiwan counted a record one-day total of 153 aircraft, 14 navy vessels and 12 Chinese government ships. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The United States has approved $2 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, including the first-time delivery to the self-ruled island of an advanced surface-to-air missile defense system, in a move that has drawn China\u2019s criticism. Taiwan\u2019s presidential office on Saturday thanked Washington for greenlighting the potential arms sales. Under the island\u2019s new president, Lai Ching-te, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}