BEIJING: The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday expressed disaffection and opposition as the U.S. on Saturday approved a $300 million sale of equipment to Taiwan region, vowing to take countermeasures against relevant enterprises involved in arms sales to the Chinese island.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remark at a daily press briefing on Monday and said the Chinese side has lodged solemn representations with the U.S. side.
“The Taiwan question is a matter of China’s internal affairs and allows no external interference,” Wang told reporters. “No matter how many weapons the U.S. provides to Taiwan region, it will neither stop the historical process of China’s reunification nor shake the firm will of the Chinese people to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Chinese mainland experts on Sunday slammed the collusion between the US and “Taiwan independence” secessionist forces for creating more risks of a conflict, after the US recently approved a sale of military data link equipment to the island of Taiwan.
Citing a Pentagon release on Friday, Reuters reported on Saturday that the US State Department has approved a $300 million sale of equipment to help maintain the island of Taiwan’s tactical information systems.
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said that the sale was for follow-on life cycle support to maintain the island of Taiwan’s Command, Control, Communications and Computers, or C4, capabilities, while the defense authority on the island claimed that the sale would help maintain the effectiveness of its joint combat command and control systems so it can improve battlefield awareness, Reuters reported.
The C4 systems consist of a series of equipment and software that can enhance the data processing capability of the armed forces on the island of Taiwan, Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military expert, told the media on Sunday.
When weapons and equipment are deployed, they require vast data transfers, raising a high demand for the data compatibility, data analytical capability and data transfer capability, Wei said, noting that the upgrade support for the C4 systems is intended to enable the armed forces on the island of Taiwan to better carry out joint operations when other items in US arms sales are delivered.
There are also possibilities that the US is attempting to gather intelligence from the C4 systems it sells to the island, Wei said.
However, just like many other previous US arms sales to the island of Taiwan, the US’ latest support for tactical information systems cannot change the fact that the island of Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) holds overwhelming advantages over the armed forces on the island of Taiwan, observers said.
C4 has become the nerve center of a military in modern warfare, so it is also one of the primary targets to be attacked in a conflict, another Chinese mainland military expert told media, requesting anonymity.
In case of a conflict, the PLA can not only make precision strikes on major military facilities on the island of Taiwan to physically take down its C4 systems, but also launch electronic and cyber warfare to paralyze them, the expert said.
The US is sending a wrong signal to “Taiwan independence” secessionist forces ahead of the upcoming regional leader election on the island in January 2024, and the move is harmful to regional peace and stability, analysts said.
Wei said that by enhancing arms sales to the island of Taiwan, the US has created more risk of a conflict in the Asia-Pacific region, and has again provoked China on its core interests.
The people on the island of Taiwan should realize that the US has swindled a large amount of their money by selling weapons to the island, and even more, those weapons would make the island’s armed forces become cannon fodder while the US wins all the benefits, Wei said.
Another wrong signal the US has sent to the island of Taiwan before its regional leader election can be seen in a report by The New York Times on Friday, which covered US military training in the Hawaiian jungle that instructs troops on the skills needed for a potential clash with China over locations including the island of Taiwan.
Western media reports on subjects such as US arms sales to the island of Taiwan and US military training exercises in preparation for a potential conflict with China could wrongly lead people on the island to believe that the US is determined to intervene in the Taiwan question militarily, putting the island in an even more dangerous position as “Taiwan independence” secessionist forces become more rampant, said mainland analysts, who questioned whether US soldiers are really willing to shed blood for “Taiwan independence” secessionists.
Even in the worst-case scenario in which the US, together with its allies and partners, all militarily intervene in the Taiwan question, the PLA is prepared, and it is capable of and confident in safeguarding national sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests, experts said.
