The United States is planning to sell $ 1.42 billion worth of weapons and military equipment to Taiwan. After a few months of calm, Taiwan is again a source of tension between Beijing and Washington. The US State Office said on Thursday that the US plans to sell $ 1.42 billion worth of weapons and military equipment to Taiwan.

First military sale after Trump

  • The sale, the first since Donald Trump came to power in January, promises to provoke Beijing's anger.

china has already criticized the initiative through the voice of its ambassador in Washington.

Cui Tiankai warned that it would harm "mutual trust between the two parties" and that it was contrary to "the spirit of the Mar-a-Lago summit," the Florida residence where Donald Trump received Xi Jinping early April.

Previous sale in December 2015

A total of seven contracts were submitted to the Congress, whose support for arms sales to Taiwan has never declined. These include the delivery of high-speed missiles, radar detection systems, and torpedoes. According to the State Department, these contracts demonstrate that the United States "supports Taiwan's ability to maintain a sufficient self-defense capacity" but does not alter the "one China" principle, according to which Beijing prohibits all to maintain official relations with Taiwanese leaders.

The latest US arms sale to Taiwan was in December 2015. The Obama administration had given the go-ahead for the sale of $ 1.8 billion worth of weapons, including two frigates, anti-tank rockets and amphibious vehicles, the anger of Beijing for whom Taiwan belongs to China.

US Ships

Another US initiative is triggering anger in Beijing; the Senate Armed Services Committee passed a bill that would allow US Navy crafts to make regular stops in Taiwan's ports.

This project, which requires the approval of the US Senate and the House of Representatives and the signature of Donald Trump, suffered the anger of Beijing, seeing it as a challenge to the "one China" principle.

The spokesman for the Foreign Ministry expressed "serious concern" for China. "We have always strongly opposed any form of official contacts and military interactions between the United States and Taiwan," a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of China said.

Increasing tensions

Tensions between Taipei and Beijing have picked up since President Tsai Ing-wen's party came to power last year. The latter particularly annoyed Beijing by talking to Donald Trump at the beginning of December, an act unpublished since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China in 1979. Donald Trump then suggested reviewing the principle of China's only one regarding the concessions obtained from China on trade.

However, as soon as Donald Trump arrived at the White House, he had made a sharp turn, reaffirming the United States' commitment to the policy of "China alone" in a telephone call with the Chinese president. Whether or not he supports the Senate bill, Donald Trump could use it to put pressure on China. There is a growing fraction of people in the United States calling for a change in relations with Taiwan. "