BREAKING: US approves 1st arms sale to Taiwan under Trump in deal worth $1.3 billion, official says.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Associated Press

BREAKING: US approves 1st arms sale to Taiwan under Trump in deal worth $1.3 billion, official says.

Link to tweet

Read more:

Link to tweet

[Hulk]

1. Oh, hooray for the US arms dealers!!

THIS is our most prominent export to date. Petroleum products and arms. Something to be so proud of. We supply the biggest butchers in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia with their killing tools...and now, we can piss off China by selling our gifts of death to Taiwan. Hooray, hooray! Bring that blood money home.

[The Wielding Truth]

2. What does China think of that?

[awesomerwb1]

4. Thinking the exact same thing. n/t

[brush]

9. That's not going to go over well with China. At odds with North Korea, now China, why not go...

go for Japan and South Korea too, trump?

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Guess arms are the only thing we still manufacture. That and accompanying hate.

[7962]

5. Hey, Taiwan has a right to buy defensive weapons, why not buy the best?

China just needs to get over it, Taiwan isnt going to be an actual part of China anymore. Just like they werent under the past, what, dozen presidents?

[dvduval]

6. But there is peace

While China and Taiwan don't agree on many things, there is peace. While China won't recognize Taiwan as a country, they trade with each other, tourists move relatively freely, etc. It does not become dangerous until you start arming Taiwan. This threatens a very long and hard fought diplomatic struggle.

Trump just lost China. There likely won't be a way anytime soon with China, but this changes everything regarding diplomacy between the US and China.

[ancianita]

8. Yep. He lost China. They are pissed enough about the South China Sea, and now this? Pffft

[xor]

10. In 2015 we sold them $1.8 billion in arms

These sales are consequences of Chinese ambitions in the south china sea and of course their rhetoric against Taiwan as usual. That is why even countries like Vietnam are reaching out to the US. Not much different to how Russia's antics drive nations toward the US and NATO. Or US meddling drives countries toward Russia and China.

[ancianita]

12. True. But this could be about scenarios I detest contemplating but can't dismiss. We live with

the craziest leader on the planet with the codes, even if he's not the actual director of the arms sales.

We're also dealing with the biggest trade country that wants to control the entire South China Sea, including areas that the U.S. wants to maintain "freedom of navigation" patrol access in. Other nations around the Pacific Rim are ramping up defense.

As these events continue, I'm not inclined to understand them as a business-as-usual argument.

[ancianita]

7. This marks either a new cold war, or weaponizing against N. Korea. Who says? Adm. James Stavridis.

Which could mean that our military has determined that N. Korea now has a delivery system.

It could also mean that Agent Orange creates a warmonger's drum beat that will keep him from being removed from office if skirmishes or "near misses" develop. Or that a military commander is needed as the #4 in presidential succession.

I hate this run-up to conflict. Hate it. It's like being made to watch a horror movie, only the Koch and Mercer video production networks are the promoters.

[xor]

11. These large sales are nothing new.

This goes beyond the Trump admin. Probably would have made the same deal under a President Clinton. Obama made a larger deal in 2015. Policy can be debated, but saying this is something new isn't accurate and not really helpful when trying to have real discussions about if its a good or bad idea.

[ancianita]

13. You win the "something new" point that I imply about arms. Even there, lines get crossed. This is

about history, not policy. However, while this commander-in-chief has not uttered one sentence of foreign policy, for the rest of us to do so is futile.

I'm glad the U.S. finally signed on to the United Nations Law of the Sea. It will undergird our credibility in future conflicts that involve ocean control.

I'm also concerned about the realpolitik of hydrocarbons in the South China Sea that drive the sea lane skirmishes we've been seeing over the "islands" China's been building in international waters.

Taiwan's Straits of Taiwan is now a pinch point of control for another source trade different from that of centuries past -- the South China Sea sits on as much oil and natural gas as exists in the Middle East.

That part IS new, even if arms sales aren't.

[politicat]

14. Oh, shit. There are very good reasons not to piss off China, and tech is the big one.

All modern tech requires semiconductors that require rare earth metals. China controls most of the world's supply, which is why China makes most of the world's semiconductors because China refuses to export their REMs and will only sell them to local manufacturers. They learned the lesson of the Opium Wars and the tea trade -- don't let John Company control the means of production. There are a few non-REM processes in the pipeline, but development is expensive and takes time and this may run out the clock on what time we had left.

Gods and angels, these people can be relied upon to always make the stupid decision.