Taipei: The top US envoy to Taiwan on Wednesday said American support for the island is “rock-solid, principled, and bipartisan,” and said Washington will continue to follow through on its commitments to ensure the island can defend itself against threats from China.
Raymond F Greene’s remarks Wednesday come at a time of uncertainty over China’s intentions toward the island it claims as its own territory — to be taken by force if necessary — and amid conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East that threaten to draw the US in further.
Greene made clear Taiwan was a top priority, especially the security of shipping in the crucial Taiwan Strait that divides the island and China.
The US will “continue to maintain the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion against Taiwan,” Greene said, referencing the Taiwan Relations Act that ensured such backing following the breaking of formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, when Washington normalized relations with the Communist government in Beijing.
Greene said the Executive Branch has notified Congress of approximately $38.4 billion in Foreign Military Sales to Taiwan since 2010, including over $6.4 billion under the Biden administration, along with the equivalent of $345 million in transfers of arms from existing US stocks.
Upgraded and new F-16 jet fighters, Abrams tanks and other equipment have arrived or are in the pipeline, while Taiwan is expanding its production of domestic arms including submarines and anti-landing and ground to air missiles.
A senior American diplomat, Greene arrived two months ago to serve as director of the American Institute in Taiwan, making him America’s de-facto ambassador on the island of 23.5 million people that has long retained strong commercial, cultural and political links with the US.
Taiwan was a main issue when US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan visited China last week, aiming to keep communications open in a relationship that has become increasingly tense in recent years.
Sullivan, on his first trip to China as the main adviser to President Joe Biden on national security issues, met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a top general from the Central Military Commission.
Danny Russel, a vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York and who served on the national security council in the Obama administration, said the meeting between Sullivan and Xi was particularly important because Sullivan was seen by the Chinese leadership as “a direct extension” of the US president and that Sullivan’s messaging was viewed as “coming straight from (President Joe) Biden”.
Sullivan also met one of China’s vice chairs of the Central Military Commission, Gen Zhang Youxia, last week — a rare meeting with a visiting US official.
“China demands that the United States stop military collusion between the US and Taiwan, stop arming Taiwan and stop spreading false narratives about Taiwan,” a Chinese Defence Ministry statement said, without elaborating on what the false narratives are.
A White House statement said the two had “recognised the progress in sustained, regular military-military communications over the past 10 months”. On Taiwan, the US statement said only that Sullivan had raised the importance of cross-Strait peace and stability.
China suspended communication between the two militaries after senior US lawmaker and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022. Talks only gradually resumed more than a year later, after Xi and Biden met outside San Francisco in November.
The US has long been a cheerleader for Taiwan’s lively democracy, which stands in stark contrast to China’s authoritarian state. However, Greene said Washington would not comment on allegations of corruption and abuse of power that have enveloped former Taipei mayor and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je over recent months.
