Donald Trump nears sale of new F-16V jets to Taiwan, a move seen as ‘huge shock’ to Beijing
- The sale would be the first such deal since 1992 and signal a new American willingness to back the self-ruled island
- US presidents since Bill Clinton have repeatedly rebuffed Taiwan’s requests for new fighter jets that could provoke China
The US may finally sell Taiwan the warplanes it has sought for more than a decade to defend against China. Their arrival would deal more of a political shock than a military blow to Beijing.
Trump administration officials have given tacit approval to Taipei’s request to buy more than 60 Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16s, according to people familiar with the matter, setting the stage for the first such deal since 1992.
While a few dozen fighter jets would hardly tip the military balance against the increasing powerful Chinese military, it would signal a new American willingness to back the democratically run island.
“For Beijing, it would be a huge shock,” said Wu Shang-su, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
“But it would be more of a political shock than a military shock. It would be, ‘Oh, the US doesn’t care how we feel.’ It would be more of a symbolic or emotional issue.”