US Navy Chief Urges Taiwan to Strengthen Defences as Billions in Promised Arms Aid Left Undelivered

Last month, Defence News calculated that the US had shipped just 16 percent of the military equipment ordered by Taiwan back in 2019. In early May, the island announced that its order of M109A6 howitzer guns had been ‘”crowded out”, forcing it to search for alternatives as Washington turned its attention to Ukraine.

Taiwan must strengthen its defences and improve training to protect itself against possible “aggression” by China in light of the crisis in Ukraine, Admiral Michael Gilday, chief of US Naval Operations, has said.

“That is a big lesson learned and a wakeup call, particularly with respect to not only having the right kit, but are people trained to use it the right way”, Gilday said, speaking at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, an influential DC-based neocon think tank, on Tuesday.

Speaking at a panel alongside other Pentagon top brass, including the chiefs of the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, Navy, and Coast Guard, Gilday said that Taiwan was “geographically” a “different problem set" from Ukraine. “You’re not going to get in there quickly or easily after the bullets begin to fly”, he explained.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin responded to Gilday’s musings, saying Taiwan was none of America’s business.

“The relevant remarks of the US side fly in the face of the US commitment to China on the Taiwan question and constitute an interference in China’s internal affairs. China is firmly opposed to them”, Wang said.

“Those who break faith not only tarnish their own reputation, but will also pay the price for doing so. Breaking commitments on the Taiwan question will incur historical punishment. We urge the US to abide by the One-China Principles and the three China-US joint communiques and earnestly act on its statement of not supporting ‘Taiwan independence’ to prevent severe damage to China-US ties and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”, the spokesman added.

The Group of Seven raised concerns over the “situation in and around the East and South China Seas” on Sunday, demanding that Beijing “abstain from threats, coercion, intimidation measures or the use of force”.

US President Joe Biden will set off for Japan and South Korea later this week, with the four-day visit to the region, the first of his presidency, expected to shore up his administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which includes strengthening US alliances in the region while undermining Chinese efforts to form regional security agreements.

Last month, US media reported that US defence contractors had a backlog of $14.2 billion worth of military equipment that Taiwan bought back in 2019, but still hadn’t received due to "Covid-related acquisition issues". Just 16 percent of the $17 billion order has been delivered to date, with important items like F-16 fighters, replacement parts for Taiwan’s Patriot missile systems, and a range of anti-tank, anti-ship, anti-air, and artillery systems remaining undelivered.

In early May, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence announced that it had been informed by the US side that it would not get its requested M109A6 self-propelled howitzers until 2026 at the earliest, and that the delay prompted the military to “carefully consider” alternatives.

The Biden administration approved an additional $750 million arms package to Taiwan in August 2021, notwithstanding the backlog in the order from 2019.

Last week, The New York Times reported that despite the delays, the US was pressuring Taipei to order even more American-made military equipment, with current and former US and Taiwanese officials cited by the newspaper as saying the arms were needed to “repel” a potential Chinese “seaborne invasion”.

Beijing has repeatedly warned Washington against sending weapons to Taipei, and slammed the US for other “provocative” actions, such as the sailing of US Navy and Coast Guard ships through the Taiwan Strait on so-called "freedom of navigation" missions.

The People’s Republic considers Taiwan an integral part of China destined for eventual peaceful reunification with the mainland under the so-called "One Country, Two Systems" model applied to Hong Kong and Macau.

Taiwan, which formally calls itself the "Republic of China", broke off from the mainland in 1949 after the victory of communist forces in the Chinese Civil War. After spending several decades bickering over who has the right to bear the name "China", Beijing and Taipei gradually began to forge informal political and economic ties in the 1980s and 1990s. Notwithstanding geopolitical tensions fuelled by US meddling and resistance to the idea of reunification by Taiwan’s governing Democratic Progressive Party, economic cooperation between the island and the mainland is stronger than ever, hitting an all-time high of $188.9 billion in 2021.