Taiwan, U.S. Ink $62bn Jet Deal Despite China Warning

Date: 15 August 2020 - 21:48

News ID: ۸۱۷۵۸

TAIPEI (Dispatches) -- Taiwan has signed a 62-billion-dollar deal to purchase F-16 fighter jets from the United States - the biggest arms pact between Washington and Taipei which is expected to increase tensions with China.
Under the deal, which the Pentagon announced on Friday, the U.S. agreed to sell 90 F-16 fighter jets from American aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin to Taiwan over a span of about 10 years.
The transaction was said to provide Taiwan with fighter jets that are equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and weapons.
The self-ruled island, which China considers part of its territory, obtained the green light from Washington last year to buy 66 new generation F-16s to modernize its air force.
The deal marks the first time since 1992 that advanced fighter jets have been sold to Taiwan and is expected to infuriate China, which has repeatedly warned Washington against selling advanced weaponry to Taipei and any kind of interference in its internal affairs.
Last year, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry called on the U.S. to "refrain” from selling the "fighter jets to Taiwan and stop arms sales to and military contact with Taiwan.”
"Otherwise, the Chinese side will surely make strong reactions, and the U.S. will have to bear all the consequences.”
Although Washington has no diplomatic relations with Taipei by law, it is the island’s largest weapons supplier and an avid backer of Taiwan’s secessionist president Tsai Ing-wen.
Washington almost regularly makes provocative moves around the self-governed island, particularly by sailing its warships through the sensitive and strategic Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from China.
The deployments spark reproach from China, which has never ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its full control.
Relations between the United States and China have hit the lowest level in decades under U.S. President Donald Trump. The two countries are at loggerheads over a range of issues, including trade, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the coronavirus pandemic.
On Friday, the U.S. navy said in a statement that a strike group led by the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan had conducted military exercises in the South China Sea.
The statement added that the strike group had carried out flight operations as well as high-end maritime stability operations and drills at the disputed sea.