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IPFS News Link • Taiwan

US Stepping Up Effort to Turn Taiwan Into an Arms Depot

• https://news.antiwar.com by Dave DeCamp

The US is stepping up its efforts to turn Taiwan into a major weapons depot, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

US officials have long called for turning Taiwan into a "porcupine" that could withstand a Chinese attack, but support for Taiwan has intensified in recent years as Washington has grown more confrontational toward Beijing.

The US wants Taiwan to focus its arms purchases on smaller, more mobile weapons, as opposed to larger systems. The Times report said that the US has been conveying this to Taiwanese officials and to the US arms industry.

The Biden administration recently approved a $1.1 billion arms sale for Taiwan that includes 60 Harpoon anti-ship missiles. Senate leaders are working to push forward a piece of legislation that would give Taiwan $6.5 billion in military aid, known as the Taiwan Policy Act, which includes other unprecedented support for Taiwan.

The policy of arming Ukraine and Taiwan is a boon for the arms industry as the US and its NATO allies are taking steps to ramp up weapons production. The $6.5 billion for Taiwan that's included in the Taiwan Policy Act would be in the form of Foreign Military Financing, a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to buy US weapons.


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