Arms sales to Taiwan only serve to sustain secessionists' delusions

The Taipei 101 skyscraper commands the urban landscape in Taipei, Taiwan. [Photo/Xinhua]

This is an editorial from China Daily.

The US State Department has approved the potential sale of military technological assistance worth $108 million to Taiwan.

It will be the fifth arms deal with the island since the Joe Biden administration took office in January 2021.

At this rate, the number of times it will sell arms to the Chinese island will exceed that of the previous administration, which sold arms to Taiwan 11 times over four years.

Neither the stern protests from Beijing nor its sanctions on related US companies and individuals have dissuaded Washington from selling arms to the island, which not only shakes the foundation of Sino-US relations but also threatens regional stability.

The Taiwan administration requested the latest assistance, which will contribute to the sustainment of tanks, small arms, combat weapon systems and logistical support items, the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.

Compared with the aggressive weapons the Trump administration sold to Taiwan, the arms the Biden administration has approved focus more on low-cost and mobile weapons that are conducive to turning the island into a "porcupine".

This is a big change in direction from the previous more than 100 arms sales to the island over the past 43 years. It signals that the secessionists on the island accept the fact that the island cannot compete with the Chinese mainland in either the pace of military advancement or scale.

The latest deal also reflects that lessons have been drawn from the Ukraine conflict in which advanced small movable individual weapons are proving to be more cost-effective in combat with a much stronger force.

Given how the Biden administration has orchestrated the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, and that the United States has started prompting chipmakers on the island to share their data with it and relocate their production and research elsewhere, this should be a worrying change to residents on the island.

Although the mainland will exhaust every peaceful means to realize national reunification, it will never give up doing it by force at whatever costs if necessary.

The Taiwan people must guard against being duped by the US' scheme of letting the Chinese fight Chinese, and prevent the puppet secessionists from hijacking their future as a sacrifice on the altar to their vainglorious ambition and US hegemony.

It is an irony that Taiwan as a watchdog for the US on the forefront of the First Island Chain still needs to pay for its own bones.