Breakaway island planted parts
Representatives of the PRC strongly protested the sale to Taiwan by Washington of spare parts for F-16 aircraft totaling $330 million, According to press Secretary office of the PRC state Council Taiwan Affairs Anh Panchana, “relying on foreigners for their own exaltation will pay a high price for it”. The US state Department has approved the sale of arms on the background of deepening contradictions between Beijing and Washington in the trade and also in the South China sea. China, which considers Taiwan its breakaway province, is considering selling as a provocative anti-China campaign. And in Taipei believe that strengthening the defense of the island will help “stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
Upstairs
Explaining the decision to supply spare parts for the Taiwan air force F-16, F-5, IDF and C-130 at the Pentagon, said: “This sale will contribute to foreign policy and national security of the United States, it will help to improve the defence capabilities of the recipient, which continues to be an important force for political stability, military balance and economic progress in the region.”
Press Secretary of the foreign Ministry of Taiwan Andrew Lee said that the island government is grateful to the Washington. “Taiwan is facing ever-increasing threats, this deal would not only strengthen our capabilities for defense, but will contribute to peace and stability between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
Meanwhile in Beijing, the deal gave the opposite rating. The Chinese foreign Ministry called the sale a gross violation of international law and a blow to China’s security. A representative of the office of the PRC state Council Taiwan Affairs’an Fengshan said that “relying on foreigners for their own exaltation will pay a high price for it”. He called on Congress to exercise its right to block the deal (by law he has 30 days). The odds of that are virtually no support among the dominant in Congress, the Republicans guarantees that the transaction will be implemented.
China considers isolated in 1949 at the end of the civil war Taiwan as its breakaway province and negatively reacts to the attempts of other countries to sell weapons there and communicate with them on any diplomatic contacts. The previous President Barack Obama in 2011 decided only to sell a few spare parts for aircraft ($52 million).
Intensification of cooperation with Taiwan began with the arrival in the White house Donald trump.
In June 2017, the Department of state has authorized the sale of the island the largest in the last decade of a package of military equipment worth $1.3 billion, the Strengthening of U.S. ties with Taiwan was part of a strategy to pressure Beijing along with a trade war, accusations of theft of intellectual property and interference in the internal Affairs of States, as well as the confrontation between the two countries in the South China sea.
As recalled by “Kommersant” a senior researcher at the Center for the study of East Asia and SCO of MGIMO Igor Denisov, in March this year, Donald trump signed passed by Congress a law that allows you to resume official contacts between the American authorities and the administration of Taiwan, including in the military sphere.
“The decision on new arms supplies will confirm that closer ties with Taiwan become a new normality, — said the expert.— The American administration tries again to turn the supply of arms to the island in one of the most important levers of pressure on Beijing. However, this American move has another purpose — to reassure Taiwan on the background of the catastrophic reduction in the number of its diplomatic allies.” This year, countries that recognize Taiwan’s government as the only legitimate China, was only 17, while in 2016 they were 21.
Michael Korotkov