TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China accused the United States of turning Taiwan into an “ammunition depot” after the White House announced a $345 million military aid package for Taipei, and the self-ruled island said Sunday it tracked six Chinese navy ships in waters off its shores.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement late Saturday opposing the military aid to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.

“No matter how much of the ordinary people’s taxpayer money the … Taiwanese separatist forces spend, no matter how many U.S. weapons, it will not shake our resolve to solve the Taiwan problem. Or shake our firm will to realize the reunification of our motherland,” said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office.

“Their actions are turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot, aggravating the threat of war in the Taiwan Strait,” the statement said.

China’s People’s Liberation Army has increased its military maneuvers in recent years aimed at Taiwan, sending fighter jets and warships to circle the island.

On Sunday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it tracked six Chinese navy ships near the island.

Taiwan’s ruling administration, led by the Democratic Progressive Party, has stepped up its weapons purchases from the U.S. as part of a deterrence strategy against a Chinese invasion.

China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Taiwan has never been governed by China’s ruling Communist Party.

Unlike previous military purchases, the latest batch of aid is part of a presidential authority approved by the U.S. Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales.

While Taiwan has purchased $19 billion worth of weaponry, much of it has yet to be delivered to Taiwan. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles to Taiwan.

  • awwwyissss@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    The island is already unified, they very clearly reject the CCPs authoritarian, violent demands.

    Fuck the CCP, Taiwan is a free country.

  • UlrikHD@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    Taiwan would never attack China, the only way a war between China and Taiwan happens is if China invades Taiwan.

    China saying this increases the “risk” of war is nothing but doublespeak.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      If anything decreases the risk of War as in it decreases the likelihood China will do anything.

      Them complaining about it is actually a sign of that the determined is working.

  • kokiriflute@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Imperialist China wants to take more land by force.

    We should continue to stand up for the sovereign rights of any country being bullied by a larger country.

    • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      country

      Might want to rephrase this. They do not call themselves a country. They call themselves a region of China.

      • ours@lemmy.film
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        1 year ago

        Oh, you know what he means. They don’t want to unreasonably provoke China so they play the “One China” game. Call having your own Government and standing military whatever you want but “country” is a pretty good label for it.

    • rustyfish@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They won’t do anything. The Chinese government is terrified by Taiwan. So sadly the Russians are the only ones who enter the „finding out“.

      • Zaktor@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        So sadly the Russians are the only ones who enter the „finding out“.

        Counterpoint: It’s not sad that there isn’t going to be a war, whether or not it might be humiliating to an authoritarian regime.

    • chaogomu@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      They have an overabundance of men thanks to their stupid one child policy. The easiest way to correct their population numbers is to start a war to kill a bunch of the excess men.

      • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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        1 year ago

        China’s population is actually in danger of the opposite extreme, that is, a population crash. They have a very large population currently, and probably will always be on the larger side, but the policy you mentioned, and the fact that it was continued longer than it had any utility, among other things, means that their birth rate is unsustainably low, in the long term, similarly to how Japan’s somewhat famously is. Beyond the normal dangers going to war poses to a country, like retaliatory action and economic disruption, losing any sizable fraction of it’s young labor force right before having a huge fraction of it’s population enter retirement age would be to take a bad situation and make it much worse. While having a significantly higher number of men than women might mean that there is a population of men whos absence would not affect the fertility rate, those people still contribute to the pool of talent and labor in the country.

      • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        Oh, you’re talking about Youth Bulge Theory, a theory espoused by the US military to understand where conflicts will emerge and how to control them by killing off military aged males in those region through controlled conflicts.

        You are projecting your death worship on people you consider “other”. Again.

        • chaogomu@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          No, I’m saying China has about 40 million surplus men who will never be able to marry and start their own families. These people are causing problems in China, This very situation has happened in Chinese history before, the Nian Rebellion, where surplus males joined the Nian gangs and started terrorizing the countryside.

          Now, historically, every single country on earth has dealt with the problem of excess males by starting a war. You either lose and kill a bunch of men who could be a problem, or win and kill a bunch of enemy men, thus freeing up their wives and daughters to become part of your population, thus solving the excess male problem.

  • Zengen@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is a very old blood feud. Taiwan’s government is the former government of mainland China (the republic of China) prior to 1949 communist civil war. The ROC ended the qing dynasty, the longest monarchic dynasty in Chinese history and instituted democracy. When the communists took over the republic of chinas leadership were basically fled and the country and established Taiwan. To the CCP Taiwanistill represents the republic of China, and just like north and south Korea, the CCP is still at war with the republic of China (Taiwan).

  • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I think people have some pretty unrealistic expectations about Taiwan.

    It’s not going to shake out like Ukraine, and that’s mostly because the geography is totally different. If this ever does escalate to the point that China goes in militarily there is basically absolutely no chance that Taiwan wins.

    Why? Because it’s impossible to supply it. Ukraine has held out this long because it’s a country with an absolutely massive border and very good train infrastructure. This allows for supplying the country very effectively.

    Taiwan on the other hand is an island that will be blockaded as soon as any conflict starts. The only way you will be able to supply it is by breaking that blockade, effectively starting ww3. On top of that the lack of infrastructure means that any supplies sent will be very very very slow, and there will be no civilian traffic to hide weapons shipments.

    Hopefully it doesn’t ever come to that occurring. But if it does happen we will either be getting ww3 or watching as the blockade simply allows the island to run out of essential munitions and then takes it.

    • Ryumast3r@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It also means that the difficulty in taking over taiwan, from China, is also that much more difficult.

      Every nation that trades with Taiwan has a vested interest in getting past, or preventing a Chinese blockade of the island.

      China cannot defeat the combined navies of South East Asia + pacific + USA, plus the coastal batteries and medium-ranged missile capability that taiwan is building up.

      China, at best, can attempt to bomb the island into nothing, which also isn’t exactly palatable.

      • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They don’t need to defeat any of those, because they won’t fight. Much like nobody will fight Russia. Because it means ww3.

        They will just continue to work on moving chip manufacturing elsewhere, they have that whole thing with moving TSMC to the US but there’s so much racism that a lot of the high-skill workers that are essential to research and operations don’t seem to want to move. If the US bothered addressing that it would go a lot smoother.

    • wanderingmagus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Don’t worry, we have contingency plans in place to ensure any attempts at a blockade will militarily fail. Why do you think strategic nuclear submarines openly ported in South Korea and Australia recently?

      • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think they’re stupid enough to get involved. But if they do we all either die in nuclear hell or die from starvation afterwards.

        • xzite@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Don’t underestimate the “stupidity” of authoritarian regimes.

          Like we’ve seen with Russia the information that leaders base their decisions on do not necessarily reflect reality in any way. China could very well start WW3 by invading Taiwain based on the false pretenses that everyone would just capitulate and totally be on their side like Russian leadership thought would happen in Ukraine.

        • wanderingmagus@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          If you ever get the clearance, look up the global campaign plans and prioritized regional objectives for INDOPACOM.

          • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I do not give a damn about your fantasy world war plans lmao. The notion that anyone “wins” afterwards is so blatantly absurd that it feels like I’m talking to a cartoon character.