International Policy Digest
Date: 02 DEC 2017
By: Yu Ding

On the Kinmen Island only a few miles east of mainland China, Taiwan deploys anti-ship missiles, surface-to-surface missiles, monitoring radar and remote howitzers. Among these arms directly pointing at China, the most advanced ones are from the United States.

Every round of U.S. eye-catching and pricy arms package sales to Taiwan irritates China. These sales of advanced armaments lead to intense condemnation of Washington and sanctions against U.S. companies. However, by changing current arms package sales to the approach of a steady stream of small deals, the United States can relieve tensions with China and better fulfill its security commitment to Taiwan.

The U.S. has sold arms to Taiwan since establishing diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. These arms sales help the U.S. to fulfill the security commitment to the island based on the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA). However, with the current approach, the U.S. is failing to help Taiwan to deter China, and also risks U.S.-Taiwan-China trilateral relations.    [FULL  STORY]