US arms sales pushing Taiwan toward abyss

The White House recently announced that it has decided to provide about $345 million worth of military "assistance" to the Taiwan island under the "Presidential Drawdown Authority" framework. This marks the first use of the PDA by the Joe Biden administration to sell arms, including offensive weaponry, to Taiwan. This shift underscores a new aspect of US arms sales to Taiwan, intensifying tensions across the Taiwan Strait and straining the foundation of Sino-US relations.

First, it marks a shift in US policy, from supplying defensive arms to providing offensive weaponry to the island. According to the "Taiwan Relations Act" that the United States passed in 1979, Washington can provide Taiwan with only arms of a defensive nature.

In the Sino-US Joint Communique of Aug 17, 1982, the US said that it does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan, that its arms sales to Taiwan will not exceed, either in qualitative or in quantitative terms, the level of those supplied in recent years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing, and that it intends to gradually reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan, leading, over a period of time, to a final resolution.