Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, speaking to the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 16, announced that that the Biden Administration is planning a $500 million package of military assistance to Taiwan, coming out of the $1 billion presidential drawdown authority approved by Congress last year. Sounding very much like the mantra on arming Ukraine “as long as it takes” to defeat Russia, he said: “That’s critical in our efforts to provide Taiwan what it needs to forge self-defense going forward,” reported the Washington Examiner. “We are working on that initiative, and we hope to have an action forthcoming here, and in the near term, we will absolutely need to have the appropriations to replace those things, which we provide. And so, vice chair, we won’t hesitate to come forward and ask for what we need to make sure that we maintain our stocks.”
Meanwhile, Chinese Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, said during a May 16 press briefing, that Beijing will not allow the U.S. to “turn back the wheel of history” on Taiwan, warning that the U.S. has stepped up its military collusion with the separatist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities by strengthening military contacts and upgrading substantive relations between the two sides, which has shaken the foundation of the China-U.S. relations and undermined the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He stressed that the Taiwan question is at the very center of China’s core interests, and remains the first red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations. The “Three Principles,” namely, severing so-called “diplomatic relations,” abrogating the “mutual defense treaty” with the Taiwan authorities and withdrawing U.S. military forces from Taiwan, were (and still are) the preconditions for the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the U.S..
“We sternly warn the U.S. side to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiqués, fulfill its commitment of not supporting ‘Taiwan independence,’ and stop any forms of military collusion with Taiwan,” he said. “And, we sternly warn the DPP authorities and the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces that any attempt to seek independence by soliciting U.S. support or by force will lead to nowhere.”
