Title: US Plans to Provide Military Aid to Taiwan Amid High-Level Talks with China
Date: August 3, 2023
In a rare high-level security dialogue between China and the United States, the US Department of Defense and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs held talks on August 2nd. This comes after previous breakdowns in Sino-US defense ministers’ dialogues. Concurrently, reports from the “Financial Times” suggest that the US intends to borrow foreign military financing to provide military aid to Taiwan.
During the high-level dialogue, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner and Yang Tao, Director of the North American and Oceanian Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, discussed defense relations between the two countries, as well as regional security in the Indo-Pacific. Ratner emphasized that the US will continue to maintain military exchanges with China.
While the US has dispatched senior officials such as Antony Blinken and Janet Yellen to resume dialogue with China, high-level military interactions between the two countries have yet to progress. This has increased instability in the Indo-Pacific region and put pressure on the US. However, this dialogue has sparked hope for the resumption of high-level security talks between the two sides.
Antony Blinken’s recent visit to China, the first by a US Secretary of State in five years, has been met with some symbolic gestures highlighting the strained US-China relations. Blinken was greeted by a low-ranking Chinese official, and photos captured the moment when he stepped on a “red line” drawn on the ground at the airport. Interestingly, these gestures differed from previous visits by US secretaries of state. The Chinese state media also did not mention what Blinken said during his talks.
Blinken’s visit is seen as potentially paving the way for Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco in November, where he could meet with US President Joe Biden. The resumption of dialogue between the US and China is believed to be driven, in part, by Beijing’s hopes for Xi’s attendance at the APEC summit.
During the talks, there were notable differences between the Chinese and US delegations in terms of mask-wearing. While Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi, wore masks, Blinken and other US personnel did not. This is in contrast to previous trilateral talks involving Chinese and US officials, where no masks were worn.
The meeting between Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping was uncertain until the last moment. The fact that Xi met with Blinken suggests that there will be continued high-level communication between China and the US, and it serves to achieve constructive discussions as the main objective of the visit.
In the midst of these developments, the conflict in the Taiwan Strait continues to impact US-China relations. The US White House Office of Management and Budget is reportedly planning to include Taiwan in the supplementary budget for military aid to Ukraine this month. If approved, this would be the first time Taiwan acquires weapons through the “foreign military financing” system, funded by US tax dollars.
Overall, these recent developments signify a potential shift in the dynamics between China, Taiwan, and the US. The resumption of high-level dialogue and the prospect of US military aid to Taiwan have implications for regional security in the Indo-Pacific.