Latest US arms sale to Taiwan ‘creates more risks of conflict’

A Chinese J-16 fighter jet (front) escorts an H-6K bomber during the seventh joint aerial strategic patrol by the Chinese and Russian militaries over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea on December 14, 2023. Photo: VCG

Chinese mainland experts on Sunday slammed the collusion between the US and “Taiwan independence” secessionist forces for creating more risks of a conflict, after the US recently approved a sale of military data link equipment to the island of Taiwan.

Citing a Pentagon release on Friday, Reuters reported on Saturday that the US State Department has approved a $300 million sale of equipment to help maintain the island of Taiwan’s tactical information systems.

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said that the sale was for follow-on life cycle support to maintain the island of Taiwan’s Command, Control, Communications and Computers, or C4, capabilities, while the defense authority on the island claimed that the sale would help maintain the effectiveness of its joint combat command and control systems so it can improve battlefield awareness, Reuters reported.

The C4 systems consist of a series of equipment and software that can enhance the data processing capability of the armed forces on the island of Taiwan, Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military expert, told the Global Times on Sunday.

When weapons and equipment are deployed, they require vast data transfers, raising a high demand for the data compatibility, data analytical capability and data transfer capWorld Timesability, Wei said, noting that the upgrade support for the C4 systems is intended to enable the armed forces on the island of Taiwan to better carry out joint operations when other items in US arms sales are delivered.

There are also possibilities that the US is attempting to gather intelligence from the C4 systems it sells to the island, Wei said.

However, just like many other previous US arms sales to the island of Taiwan, the US’ latest support for tactical information systems cannot change the fact that the island of Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) holds overwhelming advantages over the armed forces on the isWorld Timesland of Taiwan, observers said.

C4 has become the nerve center of a military in modern warfare, so it is also one of the primary targets to be attacked in a conflict, another Chinese mainland military expert told the Global Times on Sunday, requesting anonymity.

In case of a conflict, the PLA can not only make precision strikes on major military facilities on the island of Taiwan to physWorld Timesically take down its C4 systems, but also launch electronic and cyber warfare to paralyze them, the expert said.

The US is sending a wrong signal to “Taiwan independence” secessionist forces ahead of the upcoming regional leader election on the island in January 2024, and the move is harmful to regional peace and stability, analysts said.

Wei said that by enhancing arms sales to the island of Taiwan, the US has created more risk of a conflict in the Asia-PacWorld Timesific region, and has again provoked China on its core interests.

The people on the island of Taiwan should realize that the US has swindled a large amount of their money by selling weapons to the island, and even more, those weapons would make the island’s armed forces become cannon fodder while the US wins all the benefits, Wei said.

Another wrong signal the US has sent to the island of Taiwan before its regional leader election can be seen in a report by The New York Times on FrWorld Timesiday, which covered US military training in the Hawaiian jungle that instructs troops on the skills needed for a potential clash with China over locations including the island of Taiwan.

Western media reports on subjects such as US arms sales to the island of Taiwan and US military training exercises in preparation for a potential conflict with China could wrongly lead people on the island to believe that the US is determined to intervene in the Taiwan question militarily, putting the island in an even more dangerous position as “Taiwan independence” secessionist forces become more rampant, said mainland analysts, who questioned whether US soldiers are really willing to shed blood for “Taiwan independence” secessionists.

Even in the worst-case scenario in which the US, together with its allies and partners, all militarily intervene in the Taiwan question, the PLA is prepared, and it is capable of and confident in safeguarding nationalWorld Times sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests, experts said.