US to send $500 million in military aid to Taiwan
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration plans to send $500 million in military aid to Taiwan under the same emergency prerogative that has been used more than 35 times for Ukraine, a source familiar with the plan said on Friday, Reuters reports.
As part of the 2023 budget, Congress authorized up to $1 billion in military aid to Taiwan under the Presidential Withdrawal Authority (PDA), a type of authority that accelerates security assistance and has helped send weapons to Ukraine.
This military aid to Taiwan, which allows the president to transfer goods and services from US stockpiles without congressional approval during an emergency, would be the first of $1 billion allocated for this purpose.
China's administration regards democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has increased military pressure on the island over the past three years. It has never given up the option of using force to bring the island back under its control. Last month, the Chinese military staged war drills around Taiwan after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.
In February, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he planned to use withdrawal authority, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday.
