Joe Biden donates weapons to Taiwan, as he does to Ukraine
AMERICA HAS long believed that helping Ukraine to repel Russia’s invasion was not only essential to preserving the security of Europe, but also important to deterring China from invading Taiwan. On July 28th it took that reasoning a leap forward by announcing it would for the first time start to arm Taiwan from America’s own military stocks, as it has done repeatedly for Ukraine. The main difference is that it has not invoked an “emergency” to justify the move. Instead, it believes the arms supplies will help forestall a war across the Taiwan Strait.
The military move may instead provoke a new crisis. China will not accept American claims that it is nothing out of the ordinary, and represents “no change” in America’s Taiwan policy. After all, America is shifting from selling weapons to Taiwan to subsidising its armed forces. Even before the announcement, a Chinese defence-ministry spokesman denounced arms supplies to Taiwan as “malicious acts”, saying they posed “a serious threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and created significant strategic risks in China-US military relations”.
The question is whether, as in the past, China will show its anger by stepping up its military harassment of Taiwan, such as its daily testing of Taiwanese defences by flying close to its airspace and sailing near its territorial waters. Last year China fired salvos of missiles close to the self-governing island following a high-profile visit by Nancy Pelosi, the then Speaker of America’s House of Representatives. America has repeatedly accused China of carrying out dangerous manoeuvres close to its ships and planes, raising the risk of collision and superpower escalation.
2023-07-28 17:48:31
Source from www.economist.com
