The U.S. State Department recently approved the sale of military technology and related equipment totaling $95 million to Taiwan. This is the third time the Biden administration has announced an arms sale to Taiwan and the second time this year.

The United States has repeatedly "handed knives" to Taiwan, saying that it "supports Taiwan", but its real intention is to use Taiwan as a pawn and take advantage of it, and push Taiwan into the fire pit step by step.

　　U.S. arms sales to Taiwan can be described as a complete "seller's market". What to sell and at what price are almost entirely unilaterally determined by the United States.

As a result, the US arms sales to Taiwan have two "well-known trademarks" of "high price" and "waste".

For example, in 2019, Taiwan's "Legislative Yuan" passed a bill to spend $8 billion to purchase 66 F-16V fighter jets from the United States. The $120 million unit price of this "three-and-a-half-generation" fighter jet not only far exceeds the "market price", but even exceeds that of the United States. The cost of the fifth-generation F35, and it will not arrive until 2026.

The DPP authorities bought old weapons from 20 to 30 years ago at high prices, and they could only smile and show gratitude, vividly explaining how to be a qualified takeover.

　　The U.S. government announced the sale of "Patriot Special Personnel Technical Assistance" to Taiwan, and will send professionals to Taiwan to provide technical assistance such as the "Patriot" air defense system, related equipment and logistics support, with a total price of 95 million US dollars (about 2.7 billion US dollars). New Taiwan Dollars).

The US arms sales to Taiwan in February this year, called "Patriot Missile Engineering Service and Missile Effectiveness Evaluation", also maintained and improved the "Patriot" air defense missile system, with a total price of 100 million US dollars.

Both arms sales involve equipment maintenance and technical support for the "Patriot" missile system, but the United States sold it to Taiwan twice within two months, and Taiwan was forcibly stripped.

No wonder some Taiwanese netizens questioned, "Inviting these people to Taiwan will cost the people's hard-earned NT$2.7 billion, not robbing money or what?" ""Step up to hollow out Taiwan"!

　　According to Taiwanese media reports, the DPP authorities have long been in debt, with a total debt of nearly NT$6 trillion, equivalent to NT$250,000 per capita on the island.

But no matter how hard the life of the people is, the DPP authorities have to pool money to fill the bottomless pit of American arms dealers.

At the end of last year, the DPP authorities also proposed the so-called "Special Regulations on the Procurement of Sea and Air Combat Power Enhancement Plans", which included a special budget of NT$240 billion for the purchase of missiles and air defense systems in the next five years.

According to public data, in the 13 years since 2009, the cumulative amount of US arms sales to Taiwan has exceeded 30 billion US dollars.

Just imagine, if this money is used for people's livelihood construction on the island, how much power will it add to the economy and how much welfare will it create for the people?

　　The saddest thing is that the DPP authorities have paid a huge amount of "protection money" to the United States, which not only fails to "protect" but puts Taiwan in a more dangerous situation.

The essence of the US arms sales to Taiwan is that the US is "playing with fire" while the DPP authorities are "playing with fire".

The United States claims that arms sales to Taiwan are to "strengthen Taiwan's defense capabilities", but it is playing the abacus of "using Taiwan to control China". While making a lot of money, it will push Taiwan to the front line of "anti-China". Taiwan is at best a pawn and a tool , pawns, as for the future and fate of the chess pieces, it is obviously not among the concerns of the United States.

The DPP authorities wasted taxpayers' hard-earned money to buy American weapons, but packaged them as "defense of Taiwan" and "American support for Taiwan", taking the opportunity to hype the mainland's "military threat" and inciting fear among the public to deceive votes.

The U.S. and the DPP authorities are willing to fight the other, and both seek political self-interest, but take the interests of the Taiwanese people as victims.

　　The Taiwan question concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Any attempt to condone and support the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and attempt to play the "Taiwan card" and "use Taiwan to control China" will never succeed.

The United States must recognize the high sensitivity of the Taiwan issue, abide by the one-China principle, the provisions of the three Sino-US joint communiques and the commitments made by the United States, and not go further and further down the dangerous road.

If the US insists on going its own way, China will surely take effective measures to resolutely defend its own sovereignty and security interests.

　　The DPP authorities must also recognize that relying on foreigners to respect themselves and relying on the United States to seek "independence" is like drinking poison to quench thirst, and stopping playing with fire as soon as possible is the only way to avoid self-inflicted consequences.

　　Wang Ping

　　"People's Daily Overseas Edition" (Page 04 on April 11, 2022)