A major US arms sales package for Taiwan is in limbo following pressure from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and concerns among some US officials that greenlighting the deal would derail US President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to Bejing, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Wednesday.
Trump on Monday said that he would decide soon on whether to send more weapons to Taiwan, after Xi warned him not to do so.
“I’m talking to him about it. We had a good conversation, and we’ll make a determination pretty soon,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked about warnings raised by Beijing during a phone call with Xi on Feb. 4 over potential additional US arms sales to Taiwan.
Photo: Screen grab from Lockheed Martin’s Web site
Trump wants to avoid “antagonizing” China ahead of his visit, set for the first week of April, the WSJ said, citing anonymous US officials.
Beijing was already “angered” over the US$11.1 billion potential arms sales for Taiwan announced in December, the report said, adding that US officials had been discussing approving additional sales when Xi pressed Trump about the issue during their phone call.
The new arms sale package had been expected to include Patriot anti-missile interceptors and other weapons, the report said, citing a US congressional aide.
Trump’s advisers are “vacillating” on the decision, the report said, citing a US official familiar with the arms package, who insisted that “Trump would not be pushed around by China,” despite Xi being “adamant.”
Trump wants to preserve a trade truce with Xi, so the timing of an arms sale decision is being “carefully considered behind the scenes,” the report said, citing a second US official.
The US Congress has not officially been notified of new arms sales, it said.
In response, a US official told the newspaper that “the arms sales are working their way through the administration’s internal process.”
The White House “for now” is giving priority to stability, moving to sideline policy decisions that could incite retaliation from China or derail the upcoming summit, the report said.
Ahead of Trump’s anticipated visit to Beijing, both sides are looking to start formal negotiations over “deliverables,” it said.
The core friction point remains Taiwan, the report said.
Some Chinese policy advisers have discussed internally that a much larger economic package — potentially including significant US Treasury purchases — could be on the table in exchange for a more proactive US stance against Taiwanese independence, it said.
It is unclear whether such proposals are being seriously considered by Chinese negotiators led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), it added.
With the summit around the corner, the Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy struck a conciliatory tone toward Beijing, it said.
The document, released last month, stressed the need to establish “a decent peace, on terms favorable to Americans, but that China can also accept and live under,” it said.
That strategy did not specifically mention Taiwan, but included a more general statement that the US military would “erect a strong denial defense along the first island chain,” a string of islands that includes Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines, it said.
“The clear signal coming from the Trump administration is that it simply wants to maintain the current status quo ahead of April’s summit and avoid an escalatory cycle,” Washington-based research firm Beacon Policy Advisors said in a report released on Monday.
In Taipei, a national security official said that Washington has made its position clear that the security of the first island chain is directly tied to US interests, and Taiwan sits at the heart of it as a “critical node.”
Rather than slipping into “US skepticism” or “Trump skepticism” in response to the president’s actions, the official said, on condition of anonymity, that the focus should return to strategic fundamentals.
That means steadily bolstering Taiwan’s geopolitical security and defense preparedness — and positioning itself as an indispensable pillar of regional stability, the official said.
Additional reporting by Chen Yun and AFP
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