John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said this would “avoid extended periods in which fear of upsetting the U.S.-China relationship may harm Taiwan’s defense capabilities”.
Advertisement
Pentagon spokesman Bill Urban said “US and Chinese counterparts have been in contact today”, both on the military and political level, but declined to go into more details and referred reporters to Chinese officials for comment.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said this week that Beijing opposed U.S. arms sales to Taiwan as “an interference in China’s internal affairs”.
In addition to refurbished two Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates, the approved sale also includes Amphibious Assault Vehicles, and Taiwan Advanced Tactical Data Link System integration.
When the Pentagon proposed selling $6.4 billion worth of weapons to Taiwan in January 2010, China halted high-level military exchanges with the US for about a year. China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province since the two sides were separated during the Chinese civil war that ended in 1950.
“And because we are being consistent, there’s no other message that needs to be taken away from this, other than we take seriously our commitment to the defense needs of Taiwan”. “China strongly opposes the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan”, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang said, according to Xinhua.
He added that China will ease restrictions for Taiwanese to do business on the mainland, by opening 24 sectors, including advertising and packaging, to entrepreneurs from Taiwan from Jan 1 next year.
Congress has pressed the administration to expedite approval of arms sales to Taiwan, which like its neighbors in North Asia has boosted military spending in response to China’s military buildup and more expansionist foreign policy in the region. “Taiwan’s military will continue to be under-resourced and unable to make the investments necessary to maintain a credible deterrent across the strait, especially as its limited defense resources are increasingly constrained by growing military personnel costs”. That culminated last month in a meeting between Ma and President Xi Jinping.
China has threatened to impose sanctions on firms involved in the American government’s $1.8 billion (£1.2 billion) arms deal with Taiwan.
Mr Ma said China was “resolute” in its opposition to any form of weapons sale by any country to Taiwan.
Advertisement
The current weapons package had “little offensive power”, the US Naval Institute said on Wednesday, noting it did not include any support for Taiwan’s submarine program or next-generation fighter development.
