China warns US military aid package pushes Taiwan into ‘dangerous situation’

CHINA has criticised the latest package of US military assistance to Taiwan, saying that such funding was pushing the self-governing island republic into a “dangerous situation”.

On Tuesday, the US senate passed $95bn (£76.6bn) in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after months of delays and contentious debate over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars. The package included $8bn (£6.45bn) for Taiwan, meant to counter the threat of invasion by China, which claims the entire island as its own territory and has threatened to take it by force if necessary.

The mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the aid “seriously violates” US commitments to China and “sends a wrong signal to the Taiwan independence separatist forces”.

Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian added that Taiwan’s ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, which won a third four-year presidential term in January, is willing to “become a pawn for external forces to use Taiwan to contain China, bringing Taiwan into a dangerous situation”.

On Tuesday, Taiwan’s presidentelect Lai Ching-te told a visiting US congressional delegation that the aid package would “strengthen the deterrence against authoritarianism in the West Pacific ally chain” and “help ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and also boost confidence in the region”.

The package has had broad congressional support since US President Joe Biden first requested the money last summer. But US congressional leaders had to navigate strong opposition from a growing number of conservatives who question US involvement in foreign wars and argue that Congress should be focused instead on the surge of migration at the US-Mexican border.

The package covers a wide range of parts and services aimed at maintaining and and upgrading Taiwan’s military hardware.