ARMS/ASIA/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration is proposing to sell more than $2 billion worth of tanks and other military equipment to Taiwan, American officials said on Thursday [6-6-19]. The sale would add to tensions between the United States and China, which are already clashing over trade, communications technology and a military buildup in the Pacific region. The sale would be one of the largest to Taiwan in recent years by the United States. The single costliest part of the package is 108 M1A2 Abrams tanks, the officials said, and the deal would also resupply some weapons, including portable anti-tank missile systems. The United States does not give national recognition to Taiwan, a de facto independent island off the southeast coast of China that the Chinese Communist Party intends to bring back eventually under the control of Beijing, by force if necessary. But the Taiwan Relations Act obligates the United States government to help Taiwan maintain self-defense capabilities, and each administration has sold it arms packages. The United States is Taiwan’s main arms supplier.”
–Edward Wong and Catie Edmondson, “Trump Administration Plans to Sell More Than $2 Billion of Arms to Taiwan,” The New York Times online, June 6, 2019