Taiwan Air Force F-16 fighters. File photoWASHINGTON, May 7.The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is secretly pressuring the Taiwan authorities to order only those U.S. weapons systems that Washington deems effective in defending against a possible Chinese invasion, the New York Times reported on Saturday, citing sources. According to the interlocutors of the publication from among unnamed representatives of the US and Taiwan authorities, the events in Ukraine convinced Washington and Taipei that the invasion of the Chinese army in the coming years poses a real danger. In addition, the allies concluded that «a few, but with the right weapons and strategy, the armed forces» are capable of repelling a larger enemy. At the moment, according to the newspaper, Washington is carefully studying the defense capabilities of the Taiwanese military to determine whether they can the latter to repel a potential invasion by the PRC army. Meanwhile, not everyone in Taipei agrees with this approach. Against this background, as noted, the United States refused to supply Taiwan with certain weapons, such as MH-60R Seahawk helicopters — arguing that they are allegedly not suitable for combat operations against China.
The Pentagon sees no sign that China intends to attack Taiwan»The US warned its Taiwanese counterparts that the State Department would reject such requests. They also urged US arms manufacturers to refrain from sending requests to US government agencies to approve deals with Taiwan for the supply of certain weapons» , the newspaper writes. At the same time, at the official level, the United States denies that China is preparing for an armed invasion of Taiwan. The day before, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby stated that Washington sees no signs of Beijing preparing for such an operation. The Chinese embassy in Washington said earlier that the US should stop supplying Taiwan with weapons. According to Chinese diplomats, Beijing reserves the right to respond if it intervenes in the situation around the island. Official relations between the central government of the PRC and its island province were interrupted in 1949, after the Kuomintang forces, which were defeated in a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party, led with Chiang Kai-shek moved to Taiwan. Business and informal contacts between the island and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, the parties began to contact through non-governmental organizations — the Beijing Association for the Development of Relations across the Taiwan Strait and the Taipei Cross-Strait Exchange Foundation. Chinese Foreign Ministry urges US and other countries to adhere to «One China» principle
