Arms sale harms cross-Strait stability

The United States' latest approval of a $330 million arms package to Taiwan — the first by the current administration — represents yet another provocation that gravely undermines China's national sovereignty, territorial integrity and peace in the Taiwan Strait.

The Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations. Such arms sales to the secessionist-minded Lai Ching-te authorities on the Chinese island seriously violate the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique of 1982. In doing so, they send a wrong signal to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces.

Beijing has repeatedly urged successive US administrations to abide by the one-China principle and the commitments enshrined in the three communiques, including those related to Taiwan, which consecutive US leaders have pledged to uphold.

The incumbent US administration should stop condoning and aiding the attempts by separatist elements on the Chinese island to seek "Taiwan independence" through military buildup.

As Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said, the US administration should "approach the Taiwan question with utmost prudence".

Noting that "Taiwan independence" is utterly incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Strait, Chen issued a stern warning to the Lai Ching-te authorities on the island, saying, Beijing "will take all necessary measures" to firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.

The Taiwan question is China's internal affair that brooks no external interference. The US administration's attempts to disguise the latest arms deal as a "defensive" package are disingenuous, as such arms sales only embolden the "Taiwan independence" separatists. That risks dragging the region into deeper danger.

It is not the so-called "status quo" that Washington seeks to safeguard; rather, it seeks to sustain tensions that serve its geopolitical calculations. This is part of its consistent intention: to instrumentalize the Chinese island as a strategic asset for containing China's development while "feeding" the US' military-industrial complex.

But none of the facilities or capabilities the separatists have pursued with US support are defensible in the face of China's growing capacity to safeguard its core interests. Even the Democratic Progressive Party authorities led by Lai understand that relying on external weaponry is a losing proposition.

It is hypocritical for some in Washington to try and trivialize the sale as merely "providing spare parts". For the secessionists, every piece of US equipment — no matter how mundane — is an emboldener for their pursuit of splitting the country.

Washington should not misread the recent hard-won easing of bilateral economic and trade tensions. It does not give the US license to compartmentalize cooperation and confrontation. Any return to the former US administration's "competition-cooperation-confrontation" framework will only increase the uncertainties in bilateral relations.

The US' arms sale to Taiwan is reckless; not clever. It is a gamble with potentially catastrophic consequences. China has sanctioned multiple US entities for their involvement in arming Taiwan, and its export controls on strategic dual-use minerals likewise reflect its resolve to safeguard peace and stability. Beijing will never allow its raw materials to be used in manufacturing weapons that are then sold to Taiwan to resist reunification.

Washington's persistent reliance on de facto "strategic ambiguity" over the Taiwan question has long been the root cause of repeated interference in the Taiwan Strait. The unspoken status quo of the Taiwan Strait to the US is the split state of the two sides; while the real status quo is the two sides of the Strait belong to one China. Any scheme to exploit ambiguity to obstruct China's reunification will trigger firm and resolute countermeasures.

The US' political backing of the Taiwan secessionists — combined with its so-called "collective defense" arrangements with Japan and the Philippines, both of which have signaled intentions to interfere in Taiwan-related affairs — has become a major source of friction in the region.

Under the slogans protecting "peace", "order" and "freedom of navigation", the US is orchestrating collective efforts to keep China on the back foot at the cost of regional peace and stability.

The latest US arms sale not only sends a dangerous signal to the Lai authorities at a critical juncture for both Sino-US relations and cross-Strait situation, it also encourages Tokyo and Manila to ride the coattails of the US' stratagems to further their own regional ambitions in the East China Sea and the South China Sea respectively.

Arming Taiwan heightens tensions, which Washington then uses to justify more interference. That will only embolden the Taiwan separatists and countries such as Japan and the Philippines to create a spiral of instability that undermines peace for all. The hypocrisy of the US' policy will only serve to awaken other regional countries to the destructive nature of its geopolitical role in the Asia-Pacific.

China's reunification is a historic inevitability. That is not a threat to any country. Any attempt to portray it as such only reveals ulterior motives.