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
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.