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.

  • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Ah yes, giving military aid to Taiwan is turning it into a powder keg and aggravating the threat of war. Firing missile into the ocean all around Taiwan is just a calm and rational thing to do to help ease tensions in the region.

    Fuck off CCP.

    • TheDeadGuy@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Yeah Taiwan has had independence far too long for them to accept being swept into the Chinese system.

      A lot of hypocritical trolling in this thread. Tankie lemmy?

      • gornar@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        And look what happened yo Hong Kong after “promises” anyway! A reasonable person would expect the same treatment or worse for Taiwan

      • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        They were never really “dependent” to begin with. It was a split, and Taiwan is what remains of the OG Chinese Government. They’re kind of MORE legit that the CCP.

    • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Arming a secessionary territory after protecting it with European interventionism for decades is literally making it into a powder keg. Deliberately demonstrating military capabilities, like detonating over 1000 nuclear bombs in territories inhabited and used by the world’s indigenous peoples, from the Pacific Islands to the deserts of Turtle Island, is a calm and rational deterrent strategy.

      You are projecting your Western atrocities onto other people. Again.

      • Gargleblaster@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        The Chinese Civil War ended without Mao being able to capture Taiwan, where the KMT moved its Republic. No secession necessary. It was part of the ROC before the war and never part of the CCP.

        Put your propagandized version on the bookshelf next to the story about your tanks running over your own youth to preserve your authoritarian system.

        And you talking about indigenous people while you try to eradicate the Uyghurs in Xinjiang is another book on that shelf.

        • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          The fucking Europeans moved their navies in to defend the KMT and made it clear that they wanted to work with the KMT because Europe was anti-communist. It’s not merely that the PLA couldn’t take Taiwan.

          The idea that because Taiwan was part of the ROC and therefore is legitimate because it still is is so fucking ridiculous I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s maybe start with the White Terror that history books say started when the KMT declared martial law on the island but doesn’t include the killing of 18k people on the island who rose up to fight the KMT. Why would that have happened if they were all just part of the ROC and everything was fine and continuous? Why would the White Terror last 40 years of it was just everyone on the island was totally fine being part of this continuous ROC you imagine in your delusion? Why would the KMT need to spend decades killing dissidents?

          You can put your version of events into your needle and inject it straight into your track marked arms. You live off delusional coping mechanisms that allow you to maintain your self-concept as one of the good ones who sees and understands the true evil in the world.

      • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Except I hate all the terrible shit America does and have no delusions about its terribleness. Two things are similtaneously true about Taiwan. They do not want to be under the control of mainland China and deserve to live free from oppression. Yet, under the rules based international system of sovereignty that is not based on popular sovereignty, mainland China has a substantial claim to Taiwan. This doesn’t make their claim ethical or morally right as the system itself was made by imperial powers.

        China is in part terrible because it has to exist in the terrible international system of imperialism and global capitalism. They needed to adopt the practices of global capitalism, imperialism, and nationalism to compete on the world stage and avoid being victims of imperialism. This doesn’t make China the heroes, as they do the evil themselves, but it explains some of the evil. I don’t know how to dismantle a global system, but only a fool would take China’s word that they’ll totally do communism in the future, especially when they have so many tools for enslavement.

    • Adlach@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      It’s not America’s job to intervene in a civil war in East Asia. I’m not sure how it doing so could be seen as anything but provocative.

      • Jumper775@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The vast majority of American microchips are made in Taiwan at TSMC, if the people’s republic of china controlled this it would be devastating for the US and most western countries as china would have complete control over military chip production and likely would have access to American military secrets embedded in microchips produced there. It is of utmost importance to the entire western world that Taiwan maintains their self-government, whether or not it really is a part of china.

      • zacher_glachl@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The fact that you call it a civil war is all we need to know.

        edit: my bad, looking at your home instance would have been an even better way of immediately knowing you’re full of shit.

        edit2: and yes, I am fully aware that both Taiwan and the PRC officially view themselves as the legitimate government of the whole of China but it’s pretty fucking clear that in practice they are separate countries to anyone who is not snorting red propaganda like a champ.

      • TheDeadGuy@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It actually is their job. They have several treaties from SE counties trying to avoid being abused by China that go back decades

      • EnderWi99in@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It is because they have had a defense pact for years. So it’s very much part of its job. Taiwan is the legitimate government of China and has simply been stuck off the cost in exile for years. The US never should have normalized relations with an illegitimate government in the first place.

  • 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.

      • ArxCyberwolf@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        B-but America did bad things in the past, so that makes it totally and completely okay for everyone else to do the same!

        • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          “Before you have an opinion about geopolitics, make sure you’re not from the most powerful country on earth.”

          Normal internet opinions

    • 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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        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.

      • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        They have an underabundance of men, and a severe underabundance of women. Their demographics are looking terrible either way.

        Edit: here’s the population pyramid, doesn’t look very pyramidal

        China population over time

      • 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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          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.

  • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    If course they say that, they don’t want aid going to Tiwan, so make people think it won’t help. You can’t rely on an opposing parties appraisal of what it’s response is going to be, since they have massive insensitive to bluff.

    Edit: here’s the population pyramid, doesn’t look very pyramidal

    China population over time

  • 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).