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While the US has sold weapons to Taiwan ever since 1979, the most recently-announced effort by a US president to arm the Taiwanese military comes through the Presidential Drawdown Authority, the main method by which President Biden has supported Ukraine.
This means that weapons purchased by the Pentagon using taxpayer money and kept in US stockpiles are being expedited free of charge to Taiwan, thanks to a Congressional authorization of $1 billion, a major escalation in Taiwan policy, and one that has drawn harsh criticism from Beijing.
The content of the weapons package is unclear. A statement from the White House claimed it was drawing from “defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan”.
Reuters claimed that MQ-9A Reaper drones were included, citing four separate sources.
In recent months, warhawks in Congress have stressed the need to arm Taiwan “to the teeth,” often claiming the munitions are needed to deter China. During the buildup to the war in Ukraine, the US claimed the need to deter Russia while transferring $2 billion in weapons to the Ukrainian army.
In both cases, US leadership mistook or mistakes deterrence for provocation, and it has already proved incredibly costly for the Ukrainians.
Vital strategic interest
Lawmakers in Washington could make an argument that Taiwan is of greater strategic interest to the US than Ukraine. Indeed, the only interest the US has in Ukraine is trying to make Russia “weakened and isolated”. Taiwan on the other hand contains the Taiwan Semiconductors Manufacturing Company (TSMC) which supplies an inordinate amount of the world’s high-speed computer chips.
For China however, their interest in Taiwan is, according to every manual of geopolitical strategy imaginable, of the highest order, the kind for which every effort should be bent to achieve Beijing’s aims.
The interest is not having a hostile foreign power creating a fortress state just a few miles off the China coast, in the same way that the Joint Chiefs of Staff were adamant with President Kennedy that the Soviets had to leave Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The interest is a cultural one as well—with Taiwan being the only other body politic that shares the same cultural heritage as the Han Chinese-dominated Beijing. The interest is also one of historical closure, with Taiwan’s independence stemming from nationalist leader Chaing Kai-shek fleeing to the island after losing against the communists in the Chinese civil war.
The interest is also one born of absolute necessity, as any defeat, either militarily or via international relations, occurring so deep within a superpower’s sphere of influence would cause a precipitous decline in confidence among allies, domestic populations and political support, and a substantial shift in the perception of vulnerability among potential enemies.
“Their [the US’] actions are turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot, aggravating the threat of war in the Taiwan Strait,” said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office upon hearing of the weapons transfer.
“No matter how much of the ordinary people’s taxpayer money the… Taiwanese separatist forces spend, no matter how many U.S. weapons, it will not shake our resolve to solve the Taiwan problem. Or shake our firm will to realize the reunification of our motherland”.
The US has none of these interests at stake in Taiwan, meaning they can only lose in the long term. The costs for Beijing, and indeed for Taipei, may be enormous before the US realizes this. WaL
PICTURED ABOVE: “Between Chinas”: an ISS image of the Taiwan Strait at 110 miles width. PC: Stuart Rankin. CC 3.0.
