‘Absolutely Intolerable’: China’s Military Responds to US Military Aid for Taiwan, Troop Deployments

• ‘Absolutely Intolerable’: China’s Military Responds to US Military Aid for Taiwan, Troop Deployments
  by Dave DeCamp, https://news.antiwar.com/
  The PLA says it will ‘firmly crush Taiwan independence attempts and external interference’
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  On Tuesday, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) responded to US plans to provide Taiwan with $500 million in unprecedented military aid and reports that said hundreds of US troops have been deployed to the island, warning it will “firmly crush attempts at external interference.”
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  Taiwan’s defense minister recently said that Washington and Taipei are in talks about the US providing $500 million in “free” weapons. The arms will be sent using the Presidential Drawdown Authority, the same authority President Biden has been using to arm Ukraine, which allows him to ship weapons straight from US military stockpiles. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed on Tuesday that the Pentagon plans to send arms to Taiwan using the PDA soon.
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  Since Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979, the US has sold weapons to Taiwan but never provided them free of charge. Taiwanese media also recently reported that about 200 US troops have been deployed to Taiwan to assist in training, marking the largest known US military presence in Taiwan in decades.
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  According to a PLA press release, PLA spokesman Col. Tan Kefe said attempts “of the US side to turn back the wheel of history on the Taiwan question are absolutely intolerable.”
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  When asked about the aid and the troop deployment, Tan said the US has “the US has stepped up its military collusion with the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) authorities by strengthening military contacts and upgrading substantive relations between the two sides, which has shaken the foundation of the China-US relations and undermined the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
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