US lawmakers have voted for fresh assistance for Taiwan, allowing the island to upgrade its military hardware. Taiwan’s president-elect says it will “safeguard peace,” but China says it raises the risk of war.
China on Wednesday decried a fresh package of US military aid for Taiwan, which is intended to boost the island’s defenses in the case of a possible Chinese invasion.
The US Senate passed the $8 billion (€7.48 billion) military aid package late Tuesday, as part of larger legislation that includes fresh assistance for Israel and Ukraine. Having already passed the House, the bill will now head to US President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
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China does not view Taiwan as a separate country, but rather as a breakaway province. The Chinese Civil War ended in 1949, with the communists taking control of the Chinese mainland and the nationalist Kuomintang retreating to Taiwan
Oh the U.S. can it just doesn’t want too because it would be unbelievably expensive and seriously disrupt the global economy for several decades. It would be far better for everyone if it never happens. I’m pretty confident this is why the US MIC has been on an absolute tear releasing new technologies; we’ve gotten ground and air based laser systems, the B-21 Raider, the NGAD is just a couple years away, the F-22 is getting an upgrade to keep it firmly at the top of the heap, the F-35 is being upgraded with the fancy tech they’ve been promising for years, hypersonic missiles that fit in both of them, hypersonic missiles for the C-130, Rapid Dragon, new nuclear missiles, and on and on.
Seriously, the pace of new military hardware has been off the charts for the past 30 months or so and coupled with the erstwhile Trade War we’ve got going on with China I’m pretty sure it’s a Show of Strength meant to make the statement “Do not test us. You are not ready and you will fail.”
Yeah, the US military has been built since WW2 explicitly with the intention of being able to fight in Europe and in the Pacific at the same time and win both.
Ukraine has basically just gotten ammunition + existing older US equipment, it’s not like we’re draining our military capabilities supporting them right now.
That was true up until GWOT, at which point we retooled for merc’ing peasants in the desert. Now that near peer adversaries are the focus we’re returning to that philosophy while expanding our pool of capable allies in the Pacific. It’s that last part that has China pissed off. Our building and equipping a bloc of smaller countries is making it increasingly difficult for China to bully its way around the neighborhood.
It doesn’t get discussed much but China has been working hard to create economic and military ties in South America so that it can do the same thing.
The Grand Game has a new player and Uncle Sam is all excited.