"The White House will ask Congress to fund arms for Taiwan as part of a supplemental budget request for Ukraine," the publication writes. As noted, the White House request is aimed at accelerating arms deliveries to Taiwan amid an alleged growing threat from Beijing.
According to sources, the US Office of Management and Budget will include funding for Taiwan in the supplemental request as part of efforts to speed up arms shipments. If approved by Congress, it would be the first time Taiwan has received weapons through the US taxpayer-funded system, the publication noted.
The White House is expected to send the request as early as August. The newspaper notes that the Oval Office declined to comment or provide details on how much money would be requested for Taiwan. Biden previously ordered $345 million in defense aid for Taiwan.
In mid-July, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said that the United States and its allies should accelerate weapons deliveries to Taiwan to improve the island's defense capabilities. According to Milley, Taiwan's primary needs are air defense and equipment that can strike maritime targets from the ground. He added that the US is considering options to change the location of its contingent in the Asia-Pacific region.
The situation around Taiwan has escalated significantly since early August 2022, when then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island. China, which considers Taiwan to be one of its provinces, condemned Pelosi's visit, which it interpreted as US support for Taiwanese separatism, and in response Beijing conducted large-scale military exercises. Official relations between the PRC central government and its island province broke down in 1949 after the defeated Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek moved to Taiwan in a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party. Business and informal contacts between the island and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, the two sides have maintained contact through nongovernmental organizations - the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation.
China has repeatedly called on the United States to stop selling arms to Taiwan and creating tension in the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Foreign Ministry noted that the US-Taiwan military interaction and Washington's arms sales to Taipei flagrantly violate the "one China" principle and the three US-China joint communiques, as well as "cause great damage to China's sovereignty and security interests" and endanger stability in the Taiwan Strait.
As China's Foreign Ministry stated, "The facts show that the reason for the new round of tension in the Taiwan Strait is that the island's authorities are again trying to achieve independence by relying on the United States, and some American politicians want to take control of the PRC with the help of Taiwan, together they are trying to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, this is a very dangerous trend". China has repeatedly said that it will certainly "take resolute and effective measures to safeguard its sovereignty and security interests".