Why The U.S. Is Selling Taiwan New F-16 Fighter Jets

Jalopnik
Date: August 24, 2019
By: Kyle Mizokami

This week, the United States announced its intention to sell Taiwan a fleet of new F-16 fighter jets. The sale involves nearly 70 F-16 fighter jets worth $8 billion and is intended to help the island democracy defend its airspace against attack from the communist-dominated mainland. The People’s Republic of China’s growing economic, political, and military influence has left the United States the only country willing to sell arms to Taiwan, and even then the U.S. won’t give it everything it wants.

In 1949, at the end of the Chinese Civil War, China was essentially split into two political entities: the victorious Chinese Communist Party on the mainland and the beaten Chinese Nationalists, who retreated to the island of Formosa/Taiwan to lick their wounds. The two sides are separated by the Taiwan Strait, which is just 112 miles wide.

For decades China’s poverty and inability to field a credible navy meant that strait protected Taiwan from invasion. The island’s economy prospered, turning it into a major regional economic power while the mainland remained mired in relative poverty.

Since the 1980s, China has enjoyed consistent double-digit economic growth. Thanks to trade with the West and neighbors Japan, Korea, and yes even Taiwan, China has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. It’s probably the biggest economic miracle in the last hundred years. A byproduct of that is China’s growing global economic and political clout, and military that has grown dramatically over the past quarter century. The balance of military power between China and Taiwan has swung decisively, and irreversibly, in the mainland’s favor.    [FULL  STORY]