US to sell Taipei drones in $10bn weapons deal

The $US7bn US-Taiwan arms deal. Deal includes drones and cruise missiles, increasing pressure on Beijing.

The sale also includes $US400m worth of MQ-9B Reaper drones. This one is armed with GBU-12 Paveway II laser guided munitions and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. Picture: AFP

The Trump administration is poised to make a $US7bn ($9.6bn) arms deal with Taiwan, part of an effort to draw closer to Taipei as the administration ratchets up the political and military pressure against China.

The complement of US weaponry to be sold to Taiwan includes cruise missiles, mines and other hardware, two officials said, in one of the largest arms deals to the island country. The sale also includes $US400m worth of MQ-9B Reaper drones along with related sensors, logistics, ground control stations, training and other equipment, they said.

The Trump administration has inched closer to Taipei than previous administrations. The $US7bn deal would be on top of the $US15bn in arms sold to the country during the Trump administration. Arms sales to Taiwan totalled roughly $US14bn over the course of the Obama administration’s eight years in office.

Earlier sales to Taiwan, including tanks, reflected Taipei’s requests but were seen as largely symbolic, since the island nation isn’t likely to engage in a land war with China. But drones and cruise missiles are viewed by experts as much more relevant to a US effort to apply more pressure on Beijing, which considers Taiwan a rebel territory and hasn’t ruled out military efforts to bring it under its control.

Administration officials declined to comment. The proposed weaponry sales were first reported by Reuters.

The US is Taiwan’s biggest weapons supplier and a major ally. Arms sales to Taiwan are part of a broader strategy the Trump administration is taking against China. he US on Monday imposed sanctions against a Chinese firm helping to construct a Chinese military base in Cambodia in an attempt to blunt Beijing’s effort to project military power more globally. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this year announced formally that the US rejected Beijing’s claims to islands in the South China Sea.

Mr Trump is also considering banning the popular social-media app TikTok, a Chinese owned firm, unless it sells off its American operations.

The sale of arms to Taiwan also comes amid a trade war and Mr Trump’s almost d a ily criticisms of the way Beijing handled the e coronavirus.

In August, Taiwan finalised the purchase of 66 F-16s over 10 years for $US62bn, marking one of the biggest military purchases between the two countries. That same month, the cabinet of President Tsai Ing-wen proposed a $US1.4bn increase to the annual defence budget, bringing it to roughly $US15.5bn.

The decision to buy smaller, more agile weapons systems is the logical next acquisition goal in Taiwan’s ongoing push to modernise its military, said Ian Easton, senior director for Project 2049 Institute, a US-based non-profit research organisation that focuses on the Indo-Pacific region.

Since the Trump administration has sold Taiwan larger weapon systems, like jet fighters and tanks, Taipei may have felt more confident to ask for smaller systems, observers said. And Taiwan may feel the window could close quickly on America’s willingness to sell so many types of weapons.

“They went for the most difficult systems, and they got them. Now they are going for the easier stuff,” Mr Easton said. “The stars really aligned for Taiwan. But it may be only for a short while. There is no guarantee that whoever wins the next US election will keep selling so many strategically valuable weapons systems in the face of pressure from the Chinese Communist Party.”

Congress, which must approve the sales, is likely to get nervous about the drones and related hardware included in the sale, some military experts say.

“These things are incredibly controversial,” said Josh Kirshner, senior vice-president at Beacon Global Strategies. “There are no arms sales more closely held than those to Taiwan.”

He said congress would most likely focus on the drones because that technology is one of the most sensitive.

Mr Kirshner said a policy was instituted years ago to bundle such arms sales, as opposed to announcing the sale of each platform individually. The bundled sales, such as this one, send a strong signal to China, he said.

In recent weeks, China has stepped up military exercises near democratic Taiwan. Taiwan denounced the exercises, which some saw as an intimidation tactic.

Past US administrations often conducted backdoor talks and made generally smaller weapons sales to Taiwan, seeking to avoid antagonising China. The Trump administration has up-ended that approach. It has sought to underscore its support for Taiwan without significantly breaking with Washington’s longtime policy of limiting its official relationship with the island nation.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar visited Taiwan in August, drawing criticism from Beijing. On Thursday the State Department said Keith Krach, an undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, would travel to Taiwan to attend the memorial service on Saturday of former Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui.

Some analysts have called on U.S. officials to state explicitly that Washington would seek to defend Taiwan in a conflict with the mainland, ending a policy known as “strategic ambiguity.” “This administration has taken seriously its commitment to provide Taiwan with the tools that it needs for its own security,” Mr. Pompeo said in July at the Economic Club of New York.

A Taiwanese official said Taipei has no issues with the level of US defence cooperation and that Taiwan is mainly seeking cost-effective arms with a high deterrent effect.

William Mauldin contributed to this article.

The Wall Street Journal