Trump administration approves biggest ever weapons package for Taiwan

Beijing has a strategic choice to make about Taiwan.

On December 17, Washington approved a USD 11.1 billion weapons package for Taiwan – the largest such arms deal in history.

• Per Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, the package includes “HIMARS rocket systems, howitzers, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Altius loitering munition drones and parts for other equipment” (Reuters).

The US State Department said the deal serves “US national, economic and security interests by supporting the recipient’s continuing efforts to…maintain a credible defensive capability” (The Guardian).

Unsurprisingly, China was miffed (MoFA):

• “The Taiwan issue is the core of China's core interests and the first inviolable red line in Sino-US relations.”
• “China urges the US to abide by the one-China principle and…immediately cease its dangerous actions of arming Taiwan.”

Get smart: While Beijing certainly isn’t pleased by the whopping new weapons package, it has incentives to play it cool.

• US President Donald Trump has shown himself willing to make unconventional deals, including in areas seen as non-negotiable by previous administrations.
• Given the ongoing thaw in China-US relations and Trump’s planned April trip to China, Beijing would be better served by boosting bilateral bonhomie to get Taiwan-shaped concessions from the US rather than blowing up relations over a routine weapons sale.