Taiwan wants to purchase radar aircraft from its security partner, the United States, to track its powerful neighbor China’s stealth fighter jets, local media reported on Tuesday.
The Taiwanese Defense Ministry told Newsweek that it had no additional comments on the matter. The U.S. State Department said it would not comment on or confirm potential or pending arms transfers before they are notified to Congress.
Why It Matters
Communist China has long claimed that the self-ruled Taiwan is part of its own territory despite never having governed the island. The Chinese military, which has one type of stealth combat aircraft in service, officially unveiled two new radar-evading jets last year.
While the U.S. does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, Washington is required by the Taiwan Relations Act, which is part of its One China policy, to provide the island with defensive arms. China has called the Taiwan-related U.S. law “illegal and invalid.”
A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Newsweek: “Consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act, the United States will continue to enable Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities.”
Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., told Newsweek: “[U.S. arms sales to Taiwan] seriously undermine China’s sovereignty and security interests, harm China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and send a gravely wrong message to ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces.”
U.S. defense contractor Northrop Grumman, manufacturer of the E-2D aircraft, said: “The E-2D gives the warfighter decision dominance through battlespace awareness, air and missile defense, and multiple sensor fusion capabilities in an airborne system.”
