The U.S. government has quietly unfrozen about $870 million in security assistance programs for Taiwan, according to two officials familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
It is a significant move amid dramatic cuts to foreign assistance by the Trump administration, reductions which have faced a flurry of legal challenges. On Wednesday evening, just hours before a midnight deadline, the Supreme Court’s chief justice paused a federal judge’s order to disperse some $2 billion in frozen foreign aid.
China criticized the resumed funding decision for violating its security interests in Taiwan, a democratic, self-governing island which China claims as its territory and has repeatedly threatened to invade if necessary. On Thursday, China’s Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said, “We will come get you sooner or later,” in reference to Taiwan.
A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, Lin Jian, said earlier this week the U.S. funding decision “sends a gravely wrong signal to ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces.”
On Wednesday, China also kicked off live-fire military drills off the shores of Taiwan’s main island.
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