When President Joe Biden of the United States recently approved a $80 million grant to Taiwan for buying American military equipment, China expressed strong disapproval and opposition towards the decision made by Washington.
To someone who didn’t look closely, it didn’t seem like a lot of money. It cost less than one modern fighter jet. Taiwan has ordered over $14 billion worth of military equipment from the United States. Is an additional $80 million important.
Beijing usually gets angry when other countries offer military support to Taiwan, but this time they reacted differently.
The $80m is not money that needs to be paid back. It is paid for by American taxpayers. For the first time in over 40 years, the United States is using its own funds to send weapons to a location that it does not officially acknowledge. This is happening through a program called foreign military finance (FMF).
After Russia attacked Ukraine last year, FMF provided approximately $4bn of military support to Kyiv.
This money has been sent to Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, and other places. But so far, it has only been given to countries or organizations that the United Nations acknowledges. Taiwan is not present.
After the United States started acknowledging China instead of Taiwan in 1979, it still sold weapons to Taiwan according to the Taiwan Relations Act. The goal was to sell a specific amount of weapons to Taiwan, enough for their defense against China, but not too many to harm the relationship between the United States and China. For many years, the US has used a strategy of not clearly stating their position to work with China, while also supporting Taiwan strongly.
But over the past ten years, China has become much stronger than Taiwan in terms of military power. The old formula doesn’t work anymore. Washington says that its policy is still the same, but it has actually changed in important ways. The US State Department has denied that providing FMF implies acknowledging Taiwan in any way.
However, it is clear in Taipei that America is changing its relationship with the island. This is especially true because the United States is urgently encouraging Taiwan to increase its military strength. Taiwan is not as powerful as China and requires assistance.
The US is saying that it is very important for us to make our military stronger. Wang Ting-yu, a legislator from the ruling party in Taiwan who is close to President Tsai Ing-wen, says that we are sending a strong and clear message to Beijing that we are united with US Congressional leaders.
He says that the $80 million is just a small part of what could be a much larger amount. He also points out that in July, President Biden gave permission for the sale of military services and equipment worth $500 million to Taiwan.
Mr Wang said that Taiwan is getting ready to send two groups of soldiers to the US for training. This hasn’t happened since the 1970s.
However, the most important thing is the money. According to him, this could be the start of receiving as much as $10 billion in the next five years.
According to Lai I-Ching, the president of a think-tank called the Prospect Foundation, it can take as long as 10 years to finalize agreements for military equipment. “With FMF, the US is giving weapons directly from its own supplies and paying for it with US funds – so we don’t have to go through all the steps to get approval. ”
This is important because even though a divided Congress has delayed giving Ukraine billions of dollars in aid, Taiwan seems to have more agreement and support from both sides.
However, the war in Gaza will definitely limit America’s ability to provide weapons to Taipei, just like the war in Ukraine did. President Biden wants to give support to Ukraine and Israel during times of conflict. This may involve providing additional financial assistance to Taiwan as well.
When asked about how the money from the US will be used, the Ministry of National Defence in Taipei refuses to say and just smiles without giving any information.
However, Lai believes it is possible to make educated guesses about the effectiveness of weapons like the Javelin and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. These weapons are highly effective and forces can quickly learn how to use them.
“He says that we don’t have enough of them and we really need a large quantity. ” In Ukraine, the Stingers have been used up very fast, and the way Ukraine has been using them shows that we might need 10 times more than what we have right now.
The experts who have been observing for a long time have a straightforward opinion: the island is unprepared for an attack from China and in a very bad condition.
There are many problems. Taiwan’s army has many old battle tanks, but not enough new, lightweight missile systems. The way the army is organized, how they plan their strategies, and their teachings have not been changed for 50 years. Some front-line units do not have enough people, they only have 60% of the number of people they should have.
According to reports, Taiwan doesn’t have any counter-intelligence operations in China and its system for selecting people to serve in the military is not working properly.
In 2013, Taiwan reduced the time people have to serve in the military from one year to four months. However, they have now decided to increase it back to 12 months, starting from next year. However, there are more difficult problems or obstacles to overcome. The young men who go through it playfully call it a “summer camp”.
A recent graduate said that there was no consistent training. We used to visit a place where people practice shooting every two weeks, and we used old guns from the 1970s. We aimed at objects and fired. However, nobody was taught how to aim correctly, so everyone kept failing to hit their targets. We didn’t do any exercise. There is a test to check our fitness at the end, but we didn’t get ready for it.
He explained a situation where older army leaders don’t care about or want to teach these young men, mostly because they will only be there for a short period of time.
Many people in Washington believe that Taiwan needs to quickly improve and strengthen its military. So, the US is now helping to train Taiwan’s army.
For a long time, the leaders of the island have believed that it is very hard and dangerous for China to try to invade it. Similar to Britain, Taiwan focused on building up its navy and air force instead of its army.
The plan was to get them involved in the Taiwan Strait and destroy them on the beaches. Lai says that we are investing many resources in protecting the air and sea.
However, China now possesses the biggest navy in the world and a much stronger air force. A study done by a group of experts last year found that if Taiwan were to fight against China, its navy and air force would be completely destroyed in the first 96 hours of the battle.
Because of strong pressure from Washington, Taipei is moving towards a strategy called “fortress Taiwan. ” This strategy aims to make it very hard for China to take control of the island.
The attention will change to soldiers on foot, soldiers who fight on land, and big guns – pushing back against an attack on the beaches and, if needed, battling the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the towns and cities, and from bases far inside the island’s jungle-covered mountains. However, this places the duty of protecting Taiwan back onto its obsolete military force.
After the US ended our communications in 1979, our army was mainly alone and cut off from the rest of the world. Lai says that they are stuck following the military beliefs and strategies used during the Vietnam War in the United States.
This didn’t concern Taipei or Washington until recently. During the 1990s and 2000s, companies from Taiwan and the United States were constructing factories throughout China.
Beijing wanted to be part of the World Trade Organization, so they worked to become a member. And they succeeded. The Chinese economy became popular worldwide, and the US believed that trading and investing would help keep peace in the Taiwan Strait.
But the increasing power of Xi Jinping, his form of patriotism, and Russia’s attack on Ukraine have shattered those comforting beliefs.
Taiwan has been very surprised by the things they learned from Ukraine’s invasion. Artillery has been very successful in war because it can shoot a lot of bullets quickly and hit targets very accurately, which is very frightening for the enemy.
Ukrainian teams have discovered that they need to keep moving right after they shoot their shells. If they stay in the same place for too long, the Russians will react by firing shells back at them.
Many of Taiwan’s artillery soldiers use old guns from Vietnam War or even World War Two. These items are moved by hand and it is hard and takes a long time to do so. They would be very easy targets.
Taiwan’s openness to potential harm is making Washington take action. That’s the reason why soldiers from Taiwan are being sent to the US for training, and instructors from the US are coming to Taipei to work closely with Taiwan’s marines and special forces.
However, according to William Chung, a researcher in Taipei, Taiwan cannot rely on itself alone to prevent China from taking action. This is another thing we can learn from the war in Ukraine.
“He says that the international society needs to decide if Taiwan is important. ” “If the G7 or NATO believe that Taiwan is important for their own benefits, then we need to involve other countries in the Taiwan situation – because this will make China reconsider the consequences. ”
Dr Chung says that China’s actions have unintentionally been supporting Taiwan to achieve its goals.
China is trying to expand its power and control in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. And we can see the outcome in Japan where the amount of money spent on the military is now being increased by two times.
He says that the outcome is changing the relationships between countries in the area. It includes important meetings between the US, Japan, and South Korea, stronger military agreements like the Quad and Aukus, and closer connections between the US and the Philippines.
“He says China is attempting to alter the current situation in the region. ” This means that Taiwan’s security is linked to the South China Sea and East China Sea. This means that we are no longer alone or separated from others.
There is currently a heated discussion in Washington about how much support the US should provide to Taiwan. Many people who have been observing China for a long time believe that if the US publicly commits to something, it would anger Beijing instead of stopping its actions. However, Washington is aware that Taiwan cannot protect itself on its own.
Someone who has been paying attention to China for a long time said that we should stay quiet about our plans, but still give Taiwan a lot of weapons.