The United States will provide $571.3 million in defense support for Taiwan, the White House announced in late December 2024, while the U.S. State Department approved the potential sale to the island republic of $265 million worth of military equipment.
The U.S. by law must provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties between Washington and Taipei. Beijing threatens to annex the self-governed democracy by force. Taiwan rejects the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) claims of sovereignty.
Beijing has stepped up military pressure against Taiwan, including daily military activities near the island and multiple rounds of war games in 2024.
Taiwan went on alert in mid-December in response to what it said was the PRC’s largest massing of naval forces in three decades around Taiwan and in the East and South China seas.
U.S. President Joe Biden had delegated to the secretary of state the authority “to direct the drawdown of up to $571.3 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan,” the White House said in a statement.
Taiwan’s defense ministry thanked the U.S. for its “firm security guarantee,” saying in a statement the two sides would keep working closely on security issues to ensure peace in the Taiwan Strait.
The Pentagon said the State Department had approved the potential sale to Taiwan of about $265 million worth of command, control, communications and computer modernization equipment. Taiwan’s defense ministry said the equipment sale would help upgrade its command-and-control systems.
Taiwan’s defense ministry also said the U.S. government had approved $30 million of parts for 76 mm autocannon, which it said would boost the island’s capacity to counter Beijing’s intimidation.
Meanwhile, almost 99 percent of 5,000-plus conscripts serving Taiwan’s longer one-year compulsory military service since the start of 2024 passed required boot camp tests, a government official said in late December. The republic’s military in January 2024 extended service for men from four months to one year to strengthen Taiwan’s combat readiness in response to PRC threats. From January to November, 5,277 conscripts successfully completed boot camp tests, Focus Taiwan, the republic’s national news agency, reported.
