Taipei Presses Washington on the $14bn Arms Package Left Frozen
The three-day summit ended with nothing said publicly about Taiwan, and Taipei spent Saturday morning making its case. Deputy Foreign Minister François Wu argued that maintaining military sales and letting Taiwan’s semiconductor industry keep contributing are “important US interests”. The administration approved an $11bn sale in December, its largest ever; a second package worth some $14bn has been held in abeyance since May. China’s People’s Daily called Taiwan “the core of China’s core interests and the first unbreakable red line”.
Silence is the news. Mr Xi asked the president to adhere to the “correct position” of opposing Taiwanese independence and no American statement followed, which leaves the frozen package as the only measurable indicator of what was or was not conceded. Mr Wu’s own account of Taipei’s position is unusually candid about its limits: “if we can get guarantees, that would be best. I think what we can do right now is probably the maximum, which is to prepare as much as possible, communicate as much as possible, and make requests as much as possible.” The American ambassador in Beijing, David Perdue, offered the formula that satisfies nobody and holds anyway: “We want peace across the strait. We don’t want coercion. We don’t support independence.” Watch whether the package moves before January.