photo: Worthy News

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

TAIPEI/BEIJING (Worthy News) – China sent warplanes and warships toward Taiwan on Sunday after warning it would retaliate for a $2 billion arms sale package by the United States to the democratically ruled island.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said Chinese military aircraft and destroyers carried out a “combat patrol” near the island, raising military tensions.

The United States is legally bound to provide Taiwan with means to defend itself despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, a policy that has angered Beijing.

Communist-run China views Taiwan as its territory and hasn’t ruled out using force to annex the territory as Beijing views the recently elected Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te as a “separatist.”

Yet, while the Chinese military threatened Taiwan on Sunday, the U.S. was due to deliver for the first time an advanced air defense missile system battle-tested in Ukraine.

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the new sale consisted of $1.16 billion in missile systems and radar systems worth an estimated $828 million.

PROPOSED SALE

The Pentagon added that the principal contractor for the missile system will be RTX Corp.

“This proposed sale serves U.S. national, economic, and security interests by supporting the recipient’s continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability,” it explained in a statement.

However, China said it would take “countermeasures” to “defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” apparently referring to Taiwan.

Besides Sunday’s army moves, China also stepped up military pressure against Taiwan earlier, including holding a new round of war games around the island last week.

It was the second such operation since Lai took office as Taiwan’s president in May.

Taiwan’s presidential office thanked Washington over the weekend for greenlighting the potential arms sales.

DEFENSE MEASURES

Under Lai, Taiwan has increased defense measures, saying China has intensified military threats against the territory, which was a Japanese colony before being unified with China at the end of World War II.

Taiwan split away in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power in mainland China.

Lai took office in May, continuing the eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party, which rejected China’s demand to recognize Taiwan as part of China.

However, Beijing says Taiwan’s independence is a “dead end” and warns that annexation by China is a historical inevitability.

However, the latest military standoff comes at a difficult time for the West, which is already focused on ending wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, where Israel says it fights at seven fronts for its existence.

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