The Trump administration asked Congress on Wednesday to approve an arms package for Taiwan valued at more than $11 billion, in what would be a huge injection of military aid to the self-governing democratic island bracing for a long-feared invasion by China.
If approved by Congress, as is likely given Taiwan’s strong bipartisan support, the package would exceed the $8.4 billion in arms sold to Taiwan during the Biden administration, according to figures recently compiled by the research arm of Britain’s House of Commons. And it would be equivalent to more than half the $18.3 billion in arms sold to Taiwan during President Trump’s first term in office.
The size of the proposal is likely to reassure China hawks in Washington who have grown uneasy about Mr. Trump’s commitment to defending Taiwan as he seeks to cut trade and economic deals with Beijing.
The arms sales cleared by the State Department include more than $4 billion each for high mobility artillery rocket systems, known as HIMARS, and M109A7 self-propelled howitzers. The package would also include more than $700 million for Javelin and TOW anti-armor missiles, as well as Altius kamikaze drones made by the military technology company Anduril.
In a statement on its website, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the proposed sale would serve U.S. interests by supporting Taiwan’s “continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability.”
Without explicitly mentioning Beijing, Taiwan’s defense ministry said in a statement that the weapons package would provide “strong deterrence and deterrence combat capabilities” and “asymmetric combat advantages.”
U.S. officials and China experts have warned for years that China’s president, Xi Jinping, appears determined to regain control of Taiwan, which he considers a rogue province that belongs under Beijing’s control, and has been organizing his military for a potential invasion in the coming years.
Though not formally independent, Taiwan has been a self-governing democracy since China’s communist revolution and is a close U.S. ally and economic partner. Washington has supplied Taipei with advanced weapons for decades, even though it does not formally recognize Taiwan as a country and maintains a policy of “strategic ambiguity” regarding whether it would come to the island’s defense in the event of an attack.
The announcement of the package came while Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, is seeking to push through Taiwan’s annual budget as well as an additional $40 billion special budget for increased spending on military hardware up to 2033.
Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party, which, together with a smaller opposition party, controls the majority in Taiwan’s legislature, has criticized Mr. Lai’s proposals, citing issues such as delayed deliveries of previous weapons orders and wasteful projects, and could delay or even block the proposed increases in military spending.
But politicians on both sides in Taiwan have indicated that they expect Mr. Lai’s proposed special budget to pass eventually, possibly after changes demanded by the opposition.
“Taiwan will also continue to deepen cooperation with the United States and other security partners, steadily enhancing its defense capabilities and resilience,” Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement about the latest arms purchases from the United States.
Chris Buckley contributed reporting from Taipei.
Michael Crowley covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times. He has reported from nearly three dozen countries and often travels with the secretary of state.
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