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.

  • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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    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
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      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
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        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
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      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.