Taiwan presses case for US arms after Trump says he’s undecided on new sales

TAIPEI – Taiwan’s government pressed the case on May 16 for American arms supplies, saying they are based on US law and serve as a shared deterrent to regional threats, after US President Donald Trump said he had yet to decide on future sales.

Despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties, the US is the most important international backer for democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its territory. Washington is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act to provide weapons to the island.

But on May 15, after a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, Mr Trump said he has yet to decide whether to proceed with a major weapons sale, adding to uncertainty about US support for Taiwan.

In a statement, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s spokeswoman Karen Kuo said China’s escalating military threat is the “sole destabilising factor” in the Indo-Pacific region, including the Taiwan Strait.

“Furthermore, military sales between Taiwan and the US are not only a reflection of the US security commitment to Taiwan as stipulated in the Taiwan Relations Act, but also serve as a mutual deterrence against regional threats,” she said.

Taiwan thanks Mr Trump for his longstanding and continued support for security in the Taiwan Strait, and Taipei continues to deepen cooperation with Washington, Ms Kuo added.

In December, the Trump administration approved a record US$11 billion (S$14 billion) arms sale package for Taiwan. Reuters has reported a second one, worth around US$14 billion, still awaits Mr Trump’s approval.

Speaking to reporters in Taipei earlier on May 16, Taiwan Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi declined to comment on the second package because it has yet to be made public, saying Taiwan will continue to communicate with and understand the situation from the US side.

Taiwan’s government has been stymied by the opposition-controlled Parliament in trying to pass US$40 billion in extra defence spending. Earlier in May, it approved two-thirds of what the government wanted but specified it was for US arms.

US Republican and Democratic lawmakers have strongly urged the Trump administration to continue with weapons sales.

Professor Kuo Yu-ren, vice-president of the Institute for Policy Research, a Taiwan think tank, said Mr Trump might delay approving the new package until after late September, when he has invited Mr Xi to visit the United States.

In comments to journalists after his summit with Mr Xi, Mr Trump appeared to suggest he would speak with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te about the proposed sale, saying “I have to speak to the person... that’s running Taiwan.”

Asked about that possibility, Mr Chen said Taiwan still needs to try to understand the “true intent” of Mr Trump’s remarks.

While spokesperson Kuo’s statement made no mention of whether Mr Lai and Mr Trump would speak, a senior Taiwan security official said the implication from Mr Trump was “quite clear”.

“The party with whom arms sales are to be discussed is Taiwan, not Beijing,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter.

Chinese military pressure

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control and has rebuffed repeated offers of talks from Mr Lai, whom it says is a “separatist”.

Ms Kuo, Mr Lai’s spokeswoman, reiterated the government’s long-standing position that the Republic of China, Taiwan’s formal name, is a “sovereign, independent democratic country”.

“This is self-evident, and Beijing’s claims are therefore without merit,” she said.

China’s military, which operates around Taiwan almost daily, did not let up its pressure while Mr Trump was in Beijing on May 14 and 15.

Mr Shen Yu-chung, a deputy minister at Taiwan’s China-policymaking Mainland Affairs Council, said China has long sought to use pressure to push for talks and military force to push for “unification”.

“That has always been the basic tone of its Taiwan policy,” he said. REUTERS