Home America The United States Approves $2.37bn In Potential Arms Sales to Taiwan

The United States Approves $2.37bn In Potential Arms Sales to Taiwan

October 28,2020: The US State Department has approved the potential sale of 100 Boeing-made
Harpoon Coastal Defense Systems to Taiwan. The deal is worth as much as $2.37bn, the
Pentagon said on October 26.
“The United States maintains an abiding interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and
considers the security of Taiwan central to the security and stability of the broader Indo-Pacific
region,” the US State Department said in a statement.
The sale was approved under the US’s 1979 Taiwan Relations Act which governs the relations
between the US and Taiwan.
China said it would impose sanctions on the US companies involved in weapons’ sales to
Taiwan.
“To safeguard our national interests, China decided to take necessary measures and levy
sanctions on U.S. companies such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing Defence, and Raytheon, and
those individuals and companies who behaved badly in the process of the arms sales,” said Lijian
Zhao, the spokesman of China’s Foreign Ministry in a statement.
An article in Global Times, a tabloid owned by Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece People’s
Daily, called this deal “offensive but useless”.