As the situation in the Taiwan Strait continues to escalate, does the United States not know that another arms sale will exacerbate tensions and further jeopardize peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait?In my opinion, it is precisely because it is clear that Biden ** will constantly provoke Chinese mainland through arms sales. A few days ago, the United States announced that it had approved the sale of an infrared search and tracking system for F-16 fighters to Taiwan, amounting to about $500 million. Although the details of this arms sale have not been made public so far, and the two parties to the transaction have not specified the type and detailed performance of IRST equipment, this is the 11th arms sale to Taiwan under Biden's first term.
With regard to arms sales, China has repeatedly warned the United States to stop such dangerous behavior and not to create regional tensions, but it is clear that the country has not listened and is still trying to provoke cross-strait conflicts by aggravating the situation in the Taiwan Strait, so as to achieve the goal of containing and suppressing Chinese mainland. In fact, the reason why Biden will frequently sell arms to Taiwan and support the Taiwan region in words and deeds is actually to use the Taiwan authorities to prevent the rise of Chinese mainland. To put it bluntly, the Taiwan region is another "Ukraine" for the United States. How desperately the United States wants to use Ukraine to deal with Russia, and how desperately it wants to use Taiwan to deal with Chinese mainland. Therefore, from this point of view, another US arms sale to Taiwan is another provocation against China. On the Taiwan Strait issue, the United States has ignored the red line drawn by China, and arms sales are strictly prohibited by China, but the United States has done so anyway, and it has become more and more open-minded and unscrupulous.
Based on this, Japan should respond with actions, warnings are no longer effective, and we must show determination and courage to recover Taiwan, so that the United States can no longer play the Taiwan card. But before that, we need to see if the Taiwan region has this confidence. Perhaps, the United States is rushing forward, and it is impossible to say whether the Taiwan authorities are retreating. It is reported that after the United States announced the sale of the infrared search and tracking system for Taiwan's F-16 fighters, Taiwan's think tank was not very excited. In the eyes of the United States, the latest arms deal with Taiwan is "in the economic and security interests of the United States" and will help the United States and Taiwan improve hardware interoperability, but for Taiwan, even if 66 new F-16s are delivered on schedule, Taiwan's military still faces a shortage of pilots.
At least for now, Taiwan needs to replenish 100 pilots, and it will take at least 5 years to train a full-fledged F-16 pilot. In addition, the Taiwan region is also facing a problem, that is, in next year's "defense spending", the proportion of "military investment" and maintenance and security-related budgets to meet the needs of purchasing first-class equipment and other needs is about 172 to 1. In the eyes of Jie Zhong, an associate researcher at Taiwan's think tank "National Policy Research Association," in the face of a serious structural imbalance, if there is a limited space for the growth of funds for maintenance and support, then it means that in the next three to five years, even if the Taiwan military has all kinds of high-quality equipment provided by the United States, it will still have a low rate of proper use due to insufficient maintenance funds, which is "like a waste."
What if you have more ** equipment?The Taiwan region still has no chance of winning in the face of the mainland, there is no maintenance funds, and it may not even have the ability to maintain the best equipment. What's more, it will also accelerate the "death" of the Taiwan region, not only because the PLA may take over Taiwan, but also because the Taiwan region consumes a lot of money, but buys a bunch of first-class equipment that is not used or used. In short, it is still very easy for the PLA to take over Taiwan, and this time, it has no confidence in the other side.