The Financial Times reported, citing sources familiar with the situation, that U.S. President Joe Biden intends to ask Congress to use the additional Ukraine aid budget to provide weapons to Taiwan.
The Financial Times reported that “the White House will ask Congress to provide arms to Taiwan when it applies for additional aid to Ukraine.”
According to reports, the White House demanded to speed up the supply of weapons to Taiwan, or because of the growing threats from China.
The OMB will include funding for Taiwan in its supplementary budget request as part of an effort to speed up arms supplies to Taiwan, the sources said. If approved by the U.S. Congress, Taiwan would acquire weapons for the first time through a U.S. taxpayer-funded mechanism.
According to reports, the White House will make a corresponding request in August.
The Financial Times reported that the White House declined to comment or disclose how much funding it would request for Taiwan.
Earlier, Biden ordered $345 million in defense aid to Taiwan .
In mid-July, Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the US and its allies should speed up the provision of weapons to Taiwan to enhance Taiwan’s defense capabilities. First, Taiwan needs air defense systems and weapons that can strike targets at sea from the ground, Milley said. He also said that the United States is considering changing the location of the contingent in the Asia-Pacific region.
In early August last year, the situation in the Taiwan Strait deteriorated sharply after the then Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan. The Chinese side condemned Pelosi’s visit, believing it to be a manifestation of the United States’ support for Taiwan independence and holding a large-scale military exercise.
In 1949, after the Kuomintang army led by Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan, the relationship between the central government of China and the island of Taiwan was severed. In the late 1980s, the two sides resumed commercial and informal contacts. Since the early 1990s, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have begun to communicate through non-governmental organizations – the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taiwan Straits Exchange Foundation.
China has repeatedly called on the United States to stop arms sales to Taiwan and create tension across the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out that China’s firm opposition to US-Taiwan military ties and US arms sales to Taiwan is consistent and clear. The new tense factors in the Taiwan Strait will stop endangering the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait. China’s Ministry of National Defense stated that whether it is the US “using Taiwan to control China” or the DPP authorities “using force to seek independence”, they are wishful thinking and doomed to failure. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has always maintained a high level of alert, resolutely defended national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and resolutely maintained peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

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