TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China accused the United States of turning Taiwan into an “ammunition depot” after the White House announced a $345 million military aid package for Taipei, and the self-ruled island said Sunday it tracked six Chinese navy ships in waters off its shores.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement late Saturday opposing the military aid to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.

“No matter how much of the ordinary people’s taxpayer money the … Taiwanese separatist forces spend, no matter how many U.S. weapons, it will not shake our resolve to solve the Taiwan problem. Or shake our firm will to realize the reunification of our motherland,” said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office.

“Their actions are turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot, aggravating the threat of war in the Taiwan Strait,” the statement said.

China’s People’s Liberation Army has increased its military maneuvers in recent years aimed at Taiwan, sending fighter jets and warships to circle the island.

On Sunday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it tracked six Chinese navy ships near the island.

Taiwan’s ruling administration, led by the Democratic Progressive Party, has stepped up its weapons purchases from the U.S. as part of a deterrence strategy against a Chinese invasion.

China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Taiwan has never been governed by China’s ruling Communist Party.

Unlike previous military purchases, the latest batch of aid is part of a presidential authority approved by the U.S. Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales.

While Taiwan has purchased $19 billion worth of weaponry, much of it has yet to be delivered to Taiwan. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles to Taiwan.

  • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    90
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    Ah yes, giving military aid to Taiwan is turning it into a powder keg and aggravating the threat of war. Firing missile into the ocean all around Taiwan is just a calm and rational thing to do to help ease tensions in the region.

    Fuck off CCP.

    • Betty White In HD@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      54
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Everybody should just discount anything that the Chinese government says. Governments and officials anywhere lie, but the CCP is particularly deceitful.

      There shouldn’t even be articles written about it since their word means nothing essentially. They will and have a proven history of saying one thing and then doing another for as long as they’ve existed. This isn’t really news.

      Also as this platform and community continues to grow, be very cautious about pro CCP shills. They absolutely have a massive online presence on all of social media and are constantly targeting and reporting anti CCP content and spreading misinformation and starting with whataboutism when any criticism of it comes up. It’s a well known tactic and we can’t let them take control and push their narrative here. Just a heads up, there are already a couple very suspicious accounts here defending the CCP.

    • TheDeadGuy@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      33
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Yeah Taiwan has had independence far too long for them to accept being swept into the Chinese system.

      A lot of hypocritical trolling in this thread. Tankie lemmy?

      • gornar@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        And look what happened yo Hong Kong after “promises” anyway! A reasonable person would expect the same treatment or worse for Taiwan

      • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        They were never really “dependent” to begin with. It was a split, and Taiwan is what remains of the OG Chinese Government. They’re kind of MORE legit that the CCP.

    • Adlach@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      36
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      It’s not America’s job to intervene in a civil war in East Asia. I’m not sure how it doing so could be seen as anything but provocative.

      • Jumper775@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        29
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        The vast majority of American microchips are made in Taiwan at TSMC, if the people’s republic of china controlled this it would be devastating for the US and most western countries as china would have complete control over military chip production and likely would have access to American military secrets embedded in microchips produced there. It is of utmost importance to the entire western world that Taiwan maintains their self-government, whether or not it really is a part of china.

      • zacher_glachl@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        27
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        The fact that you call it a civil war is all we need to know.

        edit: my bad, looking at your home instance would have been an even better way of immediately knowing you’re full of shit.

        edit2: and yes, I am fully aware that both Taiwan and the PRC officially view themselves as the legitimate government of the whole of China but it’s pretty fucking clear that in practice they are separate countries to anyone who is not snorting red propaganda like a champ.

      • TheDeadGuy@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        20
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        It actually is their job. They have several treaties from SE counties trying to avoid being abused by China that go back decades

      • EnderWi99in@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        It is because they have had a defense pact for years. So it’s very much part of its job. Taiwan is the legitimate government of China and has simply been stuck off the cost in exile for years. The US never should have normalized relations with an illegitimate government in the first place.

    • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      39
      ·
      1 year ago

      Arming a secessionary territory after protecting it with European interventionism for decades is literally making it into a powder keg. Deliberately demonstrating military capabilities, like detonating over 1000 nuclear bombs in territories inhabited and used by the world’s indigenous peoples, from the Pacific Islands to the deserts of Turtle Island, is a calm and rational deterrent strategy.

      You are projecting your Western atrocities onto other people. Again.

      • Gargleblaster@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        20
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        The Chinese Civil War ended without Mao being able to capture Taiwan, where the KMT moved its Republic. No secession necessary. It was part of the ROC before the war and never part of the CCP.

        Put your propagandized version on the bookshelf next to the story about your tanks running over your own youth to preserve your authoritarian system.

        And you talking about indigenous people while you try to eradicate the Uyghurs in Xinjiang is another book on that shelf.

        • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          11
          ·
          1 year ago

          The fucking Europeans moved their navies in to defend the KMT and made it clear that they wanted to work with the KMT because Europe was anti-communist. It’s not merely that the PLA couldn’t take Taiwan.

          The idea that because Taiwan was part of the ROC and therefore is legitimate because it still is is so fucking ridiculous I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s maybe start with the White Terror that history books say started when the KMT declared martial law on the island but doesn’t include the killing of 18k people on the island who rose up to fight the KMT. Why would that have happened if they were all just part of the ROC and everything was fine and continuous? Why would the White Terror last 40 years of it was just everyone on the island was totally fine being part of this continuous ROC you imagine in your delusion? Why would the KMT need to spend decades killing dissidents?

          You can put your version of events into your needle and inject it straight into your track marked arms. You live off delusional coping mechanisms that allow you to maintain your self-concept as one of the good ones who sees and understands the true evil in the world.

      • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Except I hate all the terrible shit America does and have no delusions about its terribleness. Two things are similtaneously true about Taiwan. They do not want to be under the control of mainland China and deserve to live free from oppression. Yet, under the rules based international system of sovereignty that is not based on popular sovereignty, mainland China has a substantial claim to Taiwan. This doesn’t make their claim ethical or morally right as the system itself was made by imperial powers.

        China is in part terrible because it has to exist in the terrible international system of imperialism and global capitalism. They needed to adopt the practices of global capitalism, imperialism, and nationalism to compete on the world stage and avoid being victims of imperialism. This doesn’t make China the heroes, as they do the evil themselves, but it explains some of the evil. I don’t know how to dismantle a global system, but only a fool would take China’s word that they’ll totally do communism in the future, especially when they have so many tools for enslavement.