Taiwan in talks for multi-billion-dollar US arms deal to counter China’s threats

Taiwan is seeking to purchase billions of dollars’ worth of arms from the United States to secure support from the new Trump administration as China increases military pressure on the island.

News agency Reuters cited three sources familiar with the matter saying that Taiwan is in talks with Washington. One source said the arms package is intended to show the United States that Taiwan is committed to its defence. Another source indicated the package would include coastal defence cruise missiles and HIMARS rockets.

”I would be very surprised if it was less than $8 billion. Somewhere between $7 billion to $10 billion,” the source added.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz has said he wants to speed delivery of weapons to Taiwan.

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Taiwan’s defense ministry declined to comment on specific purchases but said it is focused on building its defenses.

”Any weaponry and equipment that can achieve those goals for building the military are listed as targets for tender,” it said.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 during the civil war that brought the communists to power in China. The defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan and set up a rival government there. Taiwan has its own government and military but has never declared formal independence from China.

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The Taiwan Strait is a narrow waterway that separates the island of Taiwan from China’s east coast.

The U.S. State Department removed the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence” from the fact sheet last week. The document on America’s relations with the self-governing island is posted on its website.

The government in Taiwan is worried that Trump might not be as steadfast a supporter of the island as his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

The U.S. does not recognize Taiwan as a country but is its strongest backer and biggest arms supplier.

Trump said last week that Taiwan, a leading maker of semiconductors, had taken the chip business away from the U.S. and that he wants it to come back.

China, which says that Taiwan must come under its control, has stepped up military exercises around the island of 23 million people in recent years. The U.S. government fact sheet says that it expects “differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides.”

With inputs from agencies