TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China accused the United States of turning Taiwan into an “ammunition depot” after the White House announced a $345 million military aid package for Taipei, and the self-ruled island said Sunday it tracked six Chinese navy ships in waters off its shores.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement late Saturday opposing the military aid to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.
“No matter how much of the ordinary people’s taxpayer money the … Taiwanese separatist forces spend, no matter how many U.S. weapons, it will not shake our resolve to solve the Taiwan problem. Or shake our firm will to realize the reunification of our motherland,” said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office.
“Their actions are turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot, aggravating the threat of war in the Taiwan Strait,” the statement said.
China’s People’s Liberation Army has increased its military maneuvers in recent years aimed at Taiwan, sending fighter jets and warships to circle the island.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it tracked six Chinese navy ships near the island.
Taiwan’s ruling administration, led by the Democratic Progressive Party, has stepped up its weapons purchases from the U.S. as part of a deterrence strategy against a Chinese invasion.
China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Taiwan has never been governed by China’s ruling Communist Party.
Unlike previous military purchases, the latest batch of aid is part of a presidential authority approved by the U.S. Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales.
While Taiwan has purchased $19 billion worth of weaponry, much of it has yet to be delivered to Taiwan. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles to Taiwan.
I don’t know about the fifty years before twenty years ago man, what about it? Taiwan had only been a democracy for less than 10 years at that point, a lot has changed.
The ‘want independence asap’ is almost 3x the ‘want unification asap’ crowd so I wouldn’t call them almost the same. As we’ve already discussed, Taiwan has a gun to it’s head, so it’s not surprising that the majority of people want some flavour of the status quo.
I’d be interested to know what makes you think any changes are due to peoples reactions to ‘U.S interference’, as you put it. It seems to me a lot of things have happened in the last few years.
All in all, it looks to me like the overwhelming majority of folks want to keep their independence, continue to live their lives, vote for their government and all the usual things that come from being your own people and living in your own country. The rest of the discussion can only revolve around semantics which I don’t think is really productive.
Appreciate you actually bringing the views of the Taiwanese folks into this btw. That’s something that gets left out far too often in these discussions.
What I care about most on the majority of issues is what people want. Despite the name of our system being “democracy” we don’t usually tend to get what we want though, I don’t think the majority of people want to start a war. Or want a child labour. Or want no healthcare. No rights. Blah blah blah. It would be nice if democracy produced democratic outcomes, rather than the outcome that most benefits one particular class.