Taiwan

State Department Approves $180 Million Arms Sale For Taiwan

December 31, 2022 Dave DeCamp, AntiWar.com. Educate! New Cold War, Pentagon, Taiwan, Weapons Sales

The State Department on Wednesday approved a potential $180 million arms sale for Taiwan amid heightened tensions with China over US support for the island. The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said the deal was for vehicle-launched Volcano anti-tank munition-laying systems and related equipment. The primary contractors for the deal are Northrop Grumman and Oshkosh Corporation. The State Department’s approval notifies Congress of the potential deal and begins a period during which lawmakers could attempt to block the sale. But the sale shouldn’t have any issues as there is virtually no opposition to arming Taiwan in Congress. The potential sale comes after President Biden signed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes $10 billion in loans for Taiwan to buy US-made arms that will be disbursed over five years.

Taiwan Local Election Shocks US Imperialism

December 22, 2022 Chris Fry, Friends of Socialist China. Educate! China, Elections, Taiwan, US Imperialism

On November 26, local elections were held throughout Taiwan, an island that has always been part of China, but since 1949 has been ruled by a fascist leadership driven out of the mainland by the victorious Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Taiwan has since been “protected” by the military U.S. fleet, while Taiwan’s rulers maintained 48 years of martial law and a brutal regime of “White Terror”. In 1987, the regime allowed bourgeois elections. Before the 2022 elections, Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, had campaigned for her ruling “Democratic Progressive Party” (DPP) candidates with the assertion that Taiwan is an independent nation, and should prepare to wage war. As a Nov. 25th CNN article describes: Polls opened in Taiwan on Saturday in local elections that President Tsai Ing-wen has framed as being about sending a message to the world about the island’s determination to defend its democracy in the face of China’s rising bellicosity.

Senate Looks To Give Taiwan $10 Billion In Military Aid

October 20, 2022 Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com. Educate! China, Military Aid, NDAA, Taiwan, Wars and Militarism

The Senate’s version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will include $10 billion in military aid for Taiwan, *Defense News* reported on Monday. The $10 billion would be given to Taiwan over five years in the form of Foreign Military Financing (FMF), a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to purchase US weapons. However, Taiwan will be able to use $300 million of the FMF each year to purchase military equipment from its own industrial base, a privilege only currently enjoyed by Israel. Other FMF recipients need waivers to use the funds to purchase arms that don’t come from the US. The $10 billion is a massive increase from the $4.5 billion initially proposed by Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in a piece of legislation known as the Taiwan Policy Act.

Oppose The Taiwan Policy Act Of 2022

October 14, 2022 Pivot to Peace, Popular Resistance. Resist! China, Congress, New Cold War, Taiwan

On September 14, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022. For the past half-century the US policy towards China is the One China Policy whereby the US recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the only legitimate government of China, and that Taiwan is part of China. If enacted as law, the landmark act would mark a radical shift away from the US One China policy that forms the bedrock of relations with Beijing since the 1980s. It will also upset the post WWII order set up by the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations that returned Taiwan to China, irrespective of the form of government of China. The US will, by this law, stick out as the only major country of the world that recognizes Taiwan as a nation independent of the People’s Republic of China.

The US Gets Ready For War In Taiwan

September 27, 2022 Kenny Coyle, Friends of Socialist China. Educate! China, Joe Biden, New Cold War, Taiwan

On Sunday 18 September, US President Joe Biden told the US news programme 60 Minutes that the US military would go to war in Taiwan should Chinese forces land on the island chain to enforce its sovereignty. While China has never ruled out the last-resort use of military force, it has always insisted on its preference for peaceful reunification. Biden’s most recent comments repeat previous statements, including one made in Japan, Taiwan’s former colonial occupying power, in May. They are, however, the first since US house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s journey to Taipei in August which resulted in China holding major military exercises after her visit. Pelosi’s meeting with the political leadership of Taiwan certainly enraged China and inflamed tension in the area. This was no diplomatic faux pas; it was the whole point of her trip.

Imperialism And Taiwan

September 12, 2022 Graham Harrington, Friends of Socialist China. Educate! China, New Cold War, Taiwan, US Imperialism

The recent visit of the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan has sharply increased the prospect of war in the region. The Chinese government and people strongly believe Taiwan to be their territory; and the no. 3 official in the US government visiting Taiwan is a clear provocation. Taiwan was invaded by Dutch colonists in 1624, only to be repulsed in 1662 by the Chinese national hero Zheng Chenggong. Taiwan became a full province in Qing Dynasty China in 1885. Ten years later the then Qing government lost Taiwan in a war with imperialist Japan. The Japanese were sold weapons by the United States with which to do this.

Malaysia’s Ex PM Explains Imperialism’s Roots In Capitalism

August 30, 2022 Ben Norton, Multipolarista. Resistance Report Capitalism, China, Imperialism, Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia, Neoliberalism, Taiwan, US Imperialism

Malaysia’s longest-serving Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad warned that the US is trying to start a war with China over Taiwan. He also explained how imperialism is rooted in capitalism and detailed its economic exploitation of the Global South. It’s quite obvious that when the Eastern bloc was still there, it was a bustle between capitalism and communism. Once communism was defeated, then capitalism could expand and show its true self. It’s no longer constrained by the need to be nice, so that people will choose their so-called free-market system as opposed to the centrally planned system. So because of that, nowadays there is nothing to restrain capital, and capital is demanding that it should be able to go anywhere and do whatever it likes.

US Sends Warships Through The Taiwan Strait For First Time Since Pelosi Visit

August 29, 2022 Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com. Educate! China, Taiwan, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Two US warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday in the first such US operation since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) visited Taipei at the beginning of August. The US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville made the passage through the Strait. China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) slammed the provocation and said it tracked the US warships as they made the transit. “The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command warned the US vessels and monitored their entire passage. We are fully aware of their activities. Troops of the theatre command remain on high alert and are ready to thwart any provocation,” said PLA spokesman Col. Shi Yi.

Four Times The US Nearly Killed Us All With Nuclear Armageddon

August 24, 2022 Lee Camp, Mintpress News. Resistance Report China, Nancy Pelosi, Nuclear Weapons, Taiwan, US Imperialism

Nancy Pelosi’s recent trip to Taiwan to try to start a proxy war with China helped remind a lot of Americans that our “leaders” do not have our best interests at heart and, in fact, willfully push us all toward nuclear Armageddon. Of course, this is just the latest moment when the U.S. empire has nearly caused a doomsday scenario. Here are some of the other greatest hits over the past 70 years. One night in 1961, the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on North Carolina! A B-52 crashed in the middle of the night in Faro, North Carolina, but it was more than just a downed aircraft. As National Geographic magazine reported, “…somewhere out there in the winter darkness lay… the remains of two 3.8-megaton thermonuclear atomic bombs.

What The Media Gets Wrong About Taiwan’s Place In China

August 20, 2022 Brendan Devlin, Friends of Socialist China. Educate! China, Media, New Cold War, Taiwan

Most articles briefly explained that China claims Taiwan as its own territory, and then moved on without any further explanation. Some added that Taiwan will “be annexed by force if necessary,” that China opposes visits by foreign governments and/or that China considers relations with Taiwan as an internal matter of sovereignty. Certain articles also briefly and selectively quoted Chinese officials to bolster the above points. Meanwhile, many articles uncritically included claims that Taiwan is a sovereign country. When discussing China’s response to Pelosi’s visit, an Associated Press (AP) article published at the CBC wrote simply that “Taiwan decried the actions, saying they violate the island’s sovereignty.”

Webinar: China Encirclement And The Imperialist Build-Up In The Pacific

August 19, 2022 Friends of Socialist China. Educate! Asia, China, Taiwan, US Imperialism

Our next webinar takes place on Saturday 24 September 2022, 11am (US Eastern) / 8am (US Pacific) / 4pm (Britain) / 11pm (China). This event will address the rising aggression of the US and its allies in the Pacific region. We will discuss the Biden administration’s increased support for Taiwanese separatism; Western power projection in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits; the hysteria surrounding China’s security agreement with the Solomon Islands; the AUKUS nuclear pact; developments in Korea and Japan; and more.

For The American Empire, Hypocrisy And War Go Hand In Hand

August 14, 2022 Danny Haiphong, Black Agenda Report. Educate! China, Nancy Pelosi, New Cold War, Taiwan

Much of the world held its breath as Nancy Pelosi circled around the Philippines to sneak into Taiwan late in the evening on August 2nd, 2022. The fear was that Pelosi’s trip would initiate a broader war between China and the United States. Taiwan is China’s “red line.” This was no secret to Pelosi or the Biden administration. China had sent numerous warnings from a variety of channels in the days leading up the trip. While Pelosi entered and left Taiwan unscathed, her stunt placed already fragile U.S.-China relations in their worst condition yet. As expected, China took decisive measures in response to the U.S.’s latest and perhaps most provocative violation of the One-China policy to date. The People’s Liberation Army conducted three days of military exercises surrounding Taiwan island beginning August 4th, 2022.

US-China Climate Talks In Tatters

August 14, 2022 Marcy Winograd, Consortium News. Resist! China, climate crisis, Nancy Pelosi, Taiwan

Less than 100 days before the world’s leaders meet in Egypt to tackle the climate crisis, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s incendiary trip to Taiwan leaves climate cooperation between the U.S. and China in tatters. It was only last year, in 2021, that U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry and China Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua issued a joint statement to strengthen the Paris Agreement by adopting “long-term strategies aimed at net zero GHG emissions” to keep the world’s temperature below 2 degrees Celsius, with the goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. Such collaboration is urgently needed if the world is to thwart rising sea levels, drought, famine and extreme weather — flash floods to suffocating heat waves — because China and the United States are the world’s largest carbon emitters, responsible for 40 percent of greenhouse gasses baking the earth.

Nancy Pelosi, White Supremacy, And China

August 13, 2022 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Educate! China, Nancy Pelosi, New Cold War, Taiwan

Nancy Pelosi is a member of the United States Congress. She isn’t just any member either, she is Speaker of the House of Representatives, an important leadership position in U.S. politics. She is also third in line to the presidency. If something should happen to the President and Vice President she would lead the Executive Branch of government. Her position makes her statement about digging a hole to China all the more disgraceful. It is an old trope which gives expression to China’s perceived otherness, that it isn’t just far away, it is actually the very opposite of how Americans see themselves in all their racist and exceptionalist glory. It wasn’t bad enough that Pelosi visited Taiwan in direct contradiction to what the Chinese government asked.

Can We Please Have An Adult Conversation About China?

August 12, 2022 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! China, Nancy Pelosi, New Cold War, Taiwan

As the US legislative leader Nancy Pelosi swept into Taipei, people around the world held their breath. Her visit was an act of provocation. In December 1978, the US government – following a United Nations General Assembly decision in 1971 – recognised the People’s Republic of China, setting aside its previous treaty obligations to Taiwan. Despite this, US President Jimmy Carter signed the Taiwan Relations Act (1979), which allowed US officials to maintain intimate contact with Taiwan, including through the sale of weapons. This decision is noteworthy as Taiwan was under martial law from 1949 to 1987, requiring a regular weapons supplier. Pelosi’s journey to Taipei was part of the US’s ongoing provocation of China. This campaign includes former President Barack Obama’s ‘pivot to Asia’, former President Donald Trump’s ‘trade war’, the creation of security partnerships, the Quad and AUKUS, and the gradual transformation of NATO into an instrument against China.

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