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President Donald Trump's administration announced an arms deal with Taiwan amounting to more than $11 billion on Wednesday.
The deal includes medium range missiles, artillery and drones as part of eight combined arms sale agreements. If approved by Congress, the deal would the the single largest military sale the U.S. has ever made to Taiwan, eclipsing a previous $8.4 billion deal under former President Joe Biden.
The eight arms agreements cover 82 high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, and 420 Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS - similar to what the U.S. had been providing Ukraine during the Biden administration to defend itself from Russia - worth more than $4 billion. They also include 60 self-propelled howitzer systems and related equipment worth more than $4 billion and drones valued at more than $1 billion.
Other sales in the package include military software valued at more than $1 billion, Javelin and TOW missiles worth more than $700 million, helicopter spare parts worth $96 million and refurbishment kits for Harpoon missiles worth $91 million.
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The State Department hailed the deal as one that will protect America's "national, economic, and security interests by supporting the recipient's continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability."
China's foreign ministry was quick to condemn the move on Wednesday, however, with top officials saying the cause of Taiwanese independence was "doomed" regardless of support.
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"The 'Taiwan independence' forces on the island seek independence through force and resist reunification through force, squandering the hard-earned money of the people to purchase weapons at the cost of turning Taiwan into a powder keg," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.
"This cannot save the doomed fate of 'Taiwan independence' but will only accelerate the push of the Taiwan Strait toward a dangerous situation of military confrontation and war. The U.S. support for 'Taiwan Independence' through arms will only end up backfiring. Using Taiwan to contain China will not succeed," he added.
Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung thanked the U.S. on Wednesday for its "long-term support for regional security and Taiwan's self-defense capabilities," which he said are key to deterring a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, the body of water separating Taiwan from China's mainland.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
