BEIJING — China on Wednesday criticized the latest US military assistance package to Taiwan, saying such funding was pushing the autonomous island republic into a “dangerous situation.”
The US Senate on Tuesday night approved $95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after months of delays and contentious debates over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars. The package included $8 billion for Taiwan, intended to counter the threat of invasion from China, which claims the entire island as its own territory and has threatened to take it by force if necessary.
The mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the aid “seriously violates” U.S. commitments to China and “sends the wrong signal to Taiwanese separatist independence forces.”
Office spokesman Zhu Fenglian added that Taiwan’s ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, which won a third four-year presidential term in January, is willing to “become a pawn for outside forces to use Taiwan to contain China.” , bringing Taiwan to a dangerous situation.” .”
On Tuesday, Taiwan’s President-elect Lai Ching-te told a visiting US congressional delegation that the aid package would “strengthen deterrence against authoritarianism in the Western Pacific chain of allies” and “help ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and would also boost confidence.” in the region.”
The package has had broad congressional support since Biden first requested the money last summer. But congressional leaders had to overcome strong opposition from a growing number of conservatives who question U.S. involvement in foreign wars and argue that Congress should focus on increasing migration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The package covers a wide range of parts and services aimed at maintaining and improving Taiwan’s military equipment. Separately, Taiwan has signed billions in contracts with the United States for next-generation F-16V fighter jets, M1 Abrams main battle tanks and the HIMARS rocket system, which the United States has also supplied to Ukraine.
Taiwan has also been expanding its own defense industry, building submarines and training aircraft. Next month, it plans to order its third and fourth domestically designed and built stealth corvettes to counter the Chinese navy as an asymmetric warfare strategy, in which a smaller force counters its larger opponent using cutting-edge tactics and weaponry. or unconventional.
China launches daily incursions into the waters and airspace around Taiwan with ships and warplanes. It has also sought to eliminate Taiwan’s few remaining formal diplomatic partners.
However, only two People’s Liberation Army Air Force aircraft and seven Navy ships were found operating in areas around Taiwan between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, possibly as a result of heavy storms and low seas. Nighttime visibility along the western coast of the island facing China.
At a time of heightened tensions, China has launched dozens of such missions in a 24-hour period, many of them crossing the center line in the Taiwan Strait that divides the sides or entering Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. .