Published on: 03/09/2022 – 07:16 The United States announced on Friday a new round of arms sales to Taiwan, for an amount of 1.1 billion dollars, even though tensions are at their highest high with China which considers the island as part of its territory. In response, Beijing threatened Washington with “countermeasures” if the Biden administration does not give up the new arms sale. The United States announced on Friday, September 2, the sale for 1.1 billion dollars of weapons to Taiwan, to which China, which considers the island as part of its territory, immediately asked them to give up, threatening to take “countermeasures”. This new arms sale comes a month after a visit to Taiwan by Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, which had provoked the fury of Beijing. China had then launched the most important military maneuvers in its history around the island. The American government approved the sale to Taipei for 355 million dollars of 60 Harpoon missiles capable of sinking warships, 100 short-range missiles Sidewinder ($85.6 million), capable of intercepting missiles or drones, and a maintenance contract for Taiwan’s radar system valued at $665 million, the State Department said in a statement. read also: “Quarantine, remote strikes, invasion: Chinese scenarios against Taiwan” These transactions “serve the economic and national security interests of the United States by supporting (Taiwan’s) efforts to modernize its armed forces”, underlined US diplomacy via a spokesperson. This is the biggest US arms sale to Taiwan since Joe Biden took over as president in January 2021. The announcement comes a day after Taiwanese forces naises shot down an unidentified commercial drone, part of a sudden series of incursions that have caused confusion on the island after Beijing’s previous show of force, which said it fired ballistic missiles over the capital Taipei.Beijing immediately demanded that Washington renounce these transactions, declaring itself “firmly opposed”, through the voice of the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu.China calls on the United States to “immediately revoke” arms sales to Taiwan, “lest they further affect relations with the United States, as well as peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the spokesperson added. “China will resolutely take legitimate and necessary countermeasures in light of the situation,” he concluded. Since 2010, the United States has notified Congress of more than $35 billion sale of arms to Taiwan, said a State Department spokesperson, who approved these transactions. To materialize, these sales must receive the approval of Congress, which is almost certain, military support for Taiwan enjoying broad support among elected officials on both sides. “Strategic ambiguity” These arms sales are “essential to Taiwan’s security and we will continue to work with the defense industry to support this goal,” the State Department spokesperson added. and economic on Taiwan and rather to engage in a dialogue” with Taipei, also noted the spokesperson. “The United States continues to support a peaceful resolution of the matter, in accordance with the wishes and in the interests of the Taiwanese people”.>> To read also: “In Taiwan, ‘the more China’s military capacity increases, the more the risk of invasion is growing'”On the Taipei side, “this arms sale will not only help our soldiers to fight against coercion in the gray area, it will also strengthen the island’s early warning capabilities against ballistic missiles. long-range,” Chang Tun-han, the spokesperson for the Taiwanese presidency, said in a statement of thanks. travel to the island for decades, Joe Biden’s entourage had quietly argued to China that it did not represent administration policy, as Congress was a separate branch of government. of arms, on the other hand, comes clear ment of the Biden administration, even if it is in line with the policy applied since 1979, when Washington recognized Beijing while agreeing to maintain the self-defense capacity of Taiwan. During a trip to Tokyo in May , Joe Biden appeared to break with decades of American politics by declaring that the United States would directly defend Taiwan in the event of an attack, but his aides later backtracked on his remarks to maintain the deliberately vague concept of “strategic ambiguity”. .China considers Taiwan, with a population of around 23 million, to be one of its provinces, which it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War (1949). In seven decades, the communist army has never been able to conquer the island, which has remained under the control of the Republic of China – the regime that once ruled mainland China and now only rules Taiwan.With AFP