Washington approves $1.3 bn arms sale to Taiwan

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02 July, 2017

"Taiwan is an indispensable part of China's territory and we firmly oppose this arms sale to Taiwan", Lu said.

The U.S. State Department said it notified Congress of a proposed arms sale on Thursday, the first under the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Nauert said the approvals did not violate the Taiwan Relations Act which governs USA contacts with the island.

"US arms sales to Taiwan and the sanctions against Chinese enterprises have damaged the basis and mutual trust between the two countries, it also contradicts the spirit and consensus of the two leaders' meeting in Mar A Lago", said Cui.

The arms package includes technical support for early warning radar, high speed anti-radiation missiles, torpedoes and missile components.

Concerns that Taiwan would become a bargaining chip were raised soon after Trump's election, when he suggested he may abandon the "One China" policy that underpins US-China relations, unless he could strike better deals with Beijing.

"It shows, we believe, our support for Taiwan's ability to maintain a sufficient self-defense policy", Nauert said.

No U.S. president has agreed to sell advanced fighter jets to Taiwan since George H.W. Bush in 1992.

Those measures are expected to save national coffers NT$1.4 trillion (US$46 billion), the president said, adding that with the money, "we can maintain the pension funds for civil servants and public school teachers for at least one generation, approximately 30 years".

The official said the sales represent upgrades, including equipment needed to convert current defensive systems from analogue to digital. The total includes roughly $1.3 million in transactions that are considered "foreign military sales", plus another commercial deal that also requires USA government approval and brings the total to $1.4 billion. Previous US arms packages also included two navy frigates as well as anti-tank missiles and amphibious attack vehicles.

China objected strongly, but it did not notably set back U.S.

Just after winning election, Trump infuriated China by accepting a congratulatory call from Taiwan's Beijing-skeptic president Tsai Ing-wen, smashing decades of diplomatic precedent.

"Finally, pension bankruptcy is no longer an urgent crisis to Taiwan", Tsai said in the speech, even if the one pension system that was truly on the verge of bankruptcy, that of the military, was not addressed by the government in this week's legislation.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a press briefing that Beijing has lodged a formal protest with Washington and urged the United States government to "uphold its solemn commitment to the One-China principle".


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