- A Pentagon official indicated this Thursday that arms sales to Taiwan were suspended.
- Reason given: the risk of running out of ammunition for the war led by the United States in Iran.
- This announcement comes just days after Donald Trump’s historic visit to China.
This is an explosive subject that has pitted the United States and China for a long time. This Thursday, Hung Cao, acting minister delegate to the Navy, indicated that American arms sales (nouvelle fenêtre) in Taiwan, a subject of contention between Washington and Beijing, were now suspended. “For now, we’re taking a break.”
launched the head of the Defense Department during a parliamentary hearing on a currently blocked acquisition of 14 billion dollars of weapons for the island.
According to him, this delivery is judged “sufficient”.
But the other reason given is surprising to say the least: that of the risk of… running out of ammunition “for Operation Epic Fury”
named after this military campaign launched on February 28 by the United States and Israel (nouvelle fenêtre) against Iran. “We just want to make sure we have everything we need, and then foreign military sales will resume when the administration deems it necessary.”
“A very good negotiating asset”
At the end of 2025, Washington approved the second arms sale to Taiwan since Donald Trump’s return to power, for a value of $11.1 billion. But the Republican president has since reserved his response concerning the continuation of the deliveries desired by Taipei. After his historic visit to Beijing (nouvelle fenêtre) Last week, Donald Trump declared that their pursuit “depended on China”
and constituted “a very good negotiating asset”
.
Because if China considers Taiwan as one of its provinces, which it has not succeeded in unifying with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, it reserves the possibility of resorting to force (nouvelle fenêtre) to avoid its independence.
Washington, for its part, is required to provide defensive weapons to Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act, a law adopted by the American Congress in 1979, following the recognition of the People’s Republic of China by the United States… but on condition that Taipei does not does not declare independence.
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This Wednesday, Donald Trump assured that he would soon speak to Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te on the subject in particular of these arms sales, a conversation which would then break with four decades of diplomatic protocol and which Beijing denounced in advance. There “Beijing’s position of resolute opposition to American arms sales to the Chinese region of Taiwan is constant, clear and firm”
reiterated a few days ago a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
