TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Formosan Association for Public Affairs urged the Trump administration to approve the pending NT$439 billion (US$14 billion) arms package and expedite the delivery of weapons already approved for Taiwan.
In a press release, FAPA said Chinese gray-zone tactics are expanding beyond the Taiwan Strait and across the first island chain. Citing a CommonWealth Magazine investigation analyzing 1.8 billion vessel-tracking records, the association said China Coast Guard operations extended east of Taiwan and throughout the island chain, demonstrating Beijing’s efforts to alter the status quo in the Western Pacific.
FAPA National President Su-Mei Kao (林素梅) said, “Credible deterrence along the First Island Chain is directly tied to critical US security interests in the Indo-Pacific.” Strengthening Taiwan’s defenses would help protect US security and regional peace by reducing the risk of a wider conflict requiring far greater American military resources, she said.
FAPA also called on the US Congress to pass the Six Assurances to Taiwan Act. Kao said the Six Assurances, first articulated by the Reagan administration in 1982, have represented an enduring US commitment to Taiwan for more than four decades.
Codifying them would enshrine those commitments in law and signal to Taiwan and other US partners in the Indo-Pacific that Washington’s regional security commitments will remain durable across administrations, Kao said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that Washington was weighing its own defense requirements and military production capacity as it considered the pending Taiwan arms sale. He said arms sales must account for the needs of US military commanders and the time required to replenish weapons stocks.
