The Biden administration has approved funding for the first-ever transfer of US military equipment to Taiwan under a program typically saved for sovereign nations, according to a notification sent to Congress on Tuesday.
The package – which is part of the State Department’s foreign military financing (FMF) program – totals $80 million and will be paid for by US taxpayers.
“FMF will be used to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities through joint and combined defense capability and enhanced maritime domain awareness and maritime security capability,” the department wrote in its notification to Congress that was reviewed by CNN.
IT IS A SOVEREIGN NATION
De facto, yes.
But Taiwan themselves have never formally declared independence.
Taiwan is not a member of the UN, for example, and they have not applied.
They don’t need to declare independence from anything… Does the US need to declare independence from Portugal? They were never part of Portugal…
Also, the UN does not have anything to do with being a sovereign nation. It just determines, well, if you’re a member of the UN.
On the anarchist planet that we live on, the UN actually does determine what is and isn’t a sovereign nation. Otherwise its just up to personal belief.
I don’t think that a good parallel. The US did issue a formal declaration of independence, clearly communicated it to the whole world, and defended it successfully.
The situation with Taiwan is much more ambiguous, as I don’t think independence has been the goal. It’s more a civil war that never really ended, and the US giving weapons to one side clearly disturbs the status quo. Of course China is also constantly looking to disturb it in their favor, so all of it is a very delicate balancing act…
The US issued a declaration of Independence… from Britain. Not Portugal.
Taiwan == ROC. The ROC was the original government of China. China == PRC. ROC has never in history been a part of PRC. There is as much reason for them to declare independence from PRC as there is for the US to declare independence from Portugal.
PRC are the ones who broke away from ROC, so they are the ones to declare independence.
There is as much reason for them to declare independence from PRC as there is for the US to declare independence from Portugal.
You just chose to ignore the fact that the PRC claims Taiwan as their territory, while Portugal makes no such claim over the US.
I claim France as my territory. Why has France not declared independence?
I’ll help you get there. Do you have an army of 2 million men, and spend 300 billion dollars a year on weapons?
Because the PRC does, and they do claim ROC as theirs.
Taiwan is not a member of the UN, for example, and they have not applied.
Incorrect.
That is not the same as being a member state. Taiwan is not a member.
back after 5 days…
They were a founding member of the UN.
Correct. The ROC was a founding member of the UN.
And they are not a member today. The PRC occupies that seat.
So we agree.
Good! Taiwan is a sovereign nation.
“We typically feed this type of food to cats”, they said as they fed cat food to the cat
$80 million is not very much when it comes to military aid. We’ve spent billions on Ukraine.
I’m confident that if China did decide to invade the amount of aid would ramp up exponentially. You can’t expect to come anywhere near as close to what we have given Ukraine since they’re not in the middle of an invasion.
Not to mention that everything Ukraine has been asking for from the US, Taiwan already bought in numbers and has had in the country years ago. Patriot, F16, ATACMS, and the list extends below to HIMARS and artillery and Abrahams, and above to apaches, black hawks, Phalanx, a wide range of torpedos and ground and air launched missiles, and even entire submarines.
China would also have to attack across the Taiwan straight, and amphibious landings are insanely difficult to pull off for anyone let alone for the PLA which hasn’t actually had meaningful combat experience since the Vietnam war - their Vietnam war in 1979. Any military buildup would also be obviously spotted months in advance, meaning anything from propositioned US carrier strike groups, all the way to enough time for Taiwan to build a dirty bomb or small nuke if they felt like they needed the ultimate deterrent.
The money spent in Ukraine is money well spent. They have hugely damaged a major belligerent power, forever destroyed the myth of Russian strength, unified Europe and NATO and learned much about Russian military capabilities all while using last generation western hardware
It’s also not just cash, most of the money is from arms we had basically laying around. It’s not like we wrote them a check and handed it over.
Oh absolutely. I’m not saying it shouldn’t have been spent. I’m saying this is a drop in the bucket in comparison before anyone gets worked up about it.
Forever destroyed the myth of Russian strength? That’s funny. If that were going to happen, it’d have happened after the Winter War. Or maybe the Russo-Japanese War.
In a world where people don’t all learn the same things, a myth of military strength is very easy to build from nothing. Just takes some consistent propaganda over time.
Let’s hope Winnie the Poo doesn’t throw a tantrum.
Great.
Who had China-Taiwan war on their 2023 bingo card ?
I guess it’s time for china to issue yet another Final Warning!!
