China has denounced U.S. President Joe Biden‘s decision to earmark over half a billion dollars in military equipment for Taiwan.
“Let me be clear: Taiwan independence separatism is a dead end, and what the U.S. has done to assist the Taiwan independence attempt by arming Taiwan will only backfire, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during the ministry’s regular press briefing Monday.
In a statement published on the White House website Sunday, Biden said he used his presidential drawdown authority (PDA) to authorize up to $567 million in defense items, services, and military training for the democratic island.
This executive power allows the government to move equipment and services from U.S. stocks to another country to address urgent defense needs.
China claims Taiwan is its territory and maintains unification is inevitable, through force if necessary, though the Chinese Communist Party has never ruled there.
To punish the Beijing-skeptic Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has occupied Taiwan’s presidency since 2016, China has stepped up its military activities around Taiwan with war games and near-daily warplane sorties across the midpoint of the Taiwan Strait.
Lin said green-lighting more weapons systems for Taiwan “seriously violates the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. Joint Communiques.”
He also said the move is “emboldening (Taiwan President) Lai Ching-te and the DPP authorities as they cling to the stance of Taiwan independence and make deliberate provocations on the one-China principle.”
The spokesperson added: “Such moves from U.S.-led external forces are the biggest threat facing cross-strait peace and stability.”
Cristian Schrik/U.S. Navy
Newsweek reached out to the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment outside of office hours.
According to the “one-China principle,” there is only one China, and Beijing is its legitimate government. For decades, the U.S. has carefully maintained a policy of acknowledging, but not necessarily supporting, this claim.
The three communique were joint statements made by Washington and Beijing as they normalized relations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the third communique, the U.S. said it intended to gradually draw down its arms sales to Taiwan, although former President Ronald Reagan said it had been made clear to China that the timeline for this would depend on perceived threats to Taiwan.
While Washington dropped official diplomatic ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing, the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act mandates that the U.S. provide the island with sufficient weaponry to defend itself.
It was the 50th time Biden had invoked the PDA, having mainly used it to rapidly send equipment and support to Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion.
Supplies transferred under this authority have not always arrived in good condition.
The Office of Inspector General reported earlier this month that defense supplies approved in July 2023 but not delivered to the island until December included “unserviceable and poorly packaged” items such as moldy body armor.
The Pentagon responded that it had “taken action to improve its PDA process for Taiwan.”
With an eye on China’s aggressive movements, Taiwan has, in recent years, ordered several big-ticket weapons systems from Washington while developing its own capabilities.
However, Taipei is still waiting for nearly $20 billion worth of backlogged orders, according to estimates by the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Among these are 100 Harpoon shore-based antiship missile systems, 400 Harpoon Block II missiles, spare parts, and radar trucks approved for sale to Taiwan in 2020 for over $2 billion.
The initial batch of equipment arrived at the southern port city of Kaohsiung on Friday, local media reported. The order is expected to be filled by the end of 2028.
