New (big) support released by the United States in favor of Taiwan. US President Joe Biden asked his Secretary of State Antony Blinken to allow the shipment “up to $567 million in Department of Defense equipment and services, as well as military training, to provide assistance to Taiwan,” according to a brief press release from the American presidency published on Sunday. No further details have been made public about this envelope.
In any case, its value turns out to be much higher than that approved in July 2023. The United States then provided military aid of $345 million, taken from defensive arms stocks or even from “anti-armor and anti-aircraft defense capabilities”, like what has been done for Ukraine since the start of the war. And last April, as part of a major aid plan passed by the American Congress, more than 8 billion dollars were mobilized for Taiwan to enable it to stand up to China on a military level by investing in submarines, and on the economic level by competing with major Chinese projects in developing countries.
In total, several billion dollars have been allocated to the archipelago of 23 million inhabitants that China considers one of its provinces. Beijing has intensified military and political pressure on Taipei in recent years, regularly sending warships and fighter planes around Taiwan. Although the United States does not recognize Taiwan as a state and considers the People’s Republic of China to be its sole legitimate government, it nevertheless provides Taipei with significant military aid. Support that Beijing regularly opposes, accusing Washington of meddling in its affairs.
Taiwan is a “red line”: China threatens (again) the United States
Biden denounces Beijing’s aggressiveness
This new envelope is also announced in a climate of strong tensions between the United States and China. Joe Biden declared in mid-September that China was putting Asia and the United States “put to the test” due to his increasingly behavior ” aggressive “particularly in the South China Sea and vis-à-vis Taiwan. A total of 72 Chinese planes and eight warships were detected around Taiwan in around 30 hours, the island’s Defense Ministry said last Thursday.
Beijing justifies this deployment by the fact that, last week, several foreign warships crossed the Taiwan Strait. On the one hand, two New Zealand and Australian military ships, a first in seven years for a New Zealand vessel, in order to assert the “right to freedom of navigation”, according to a spokesperson for the New Zealand Ministry of Defense to AFP. And, on the other hand, and for the first time, a Japanese warship.
This crossing “part of a broader context of increased naval presence from Asian countries and others concerned about China’s maritime claims,” Bec Strating, professor of international relations at La Trobe University in Australia, explained to AFP. China’s growing economic and military influence in the Asia-Pacific region and its claims are indeed worrying the countries bordering these waters, of which the United States is also an ally.
South China Sea: Beijing promises to crush any foreign incursion violating its sovereignty
Exchange between Biden and Xi Jinping in preparation
In this context, in an attempt to stabilize these tumultuous relations, high-level meetings have increased between Chinese and Americans since last year. The latest example was at the end of last week when, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Antony Blinken met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. Both agreed, according to the American Secretary of State, to« importance » that Chinese leaders Xi Jinping and American Joe Biden should be able to communicate with each other.
On this subject, Antony Blinken said he expected this to be the case in the “weeks to come”, without however confirming the date or format. The White House had previously indicated in early September that the two countries had begun preparing for a possible telephone exchange in the coming weeks between the two presidents. Their last interview dates back to April. They could nevertheless meet physically on the sidelines of summits in Brazil and Peru.
(With AFP)
