Washington’s notification of a second weapons sale to Taiwan in as many years is helping arm the client without, so far, enraging its military rival, China, or exacerbating already strained Sino-U.S. ties.

The Pentagon notified Congress Monday of a $330 million arms package, including parts for American-made aircraft such as F-16s and F-5s. The package omits new fighter jets, such as F-35s, or technology for submarines despite Taiwan’s requests over the years. But the deal has drawn just a routine protest from China rather than the outrage expected from bigger sales.

China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and insists the two sides eventually unify, by force if needed. Taiwanese prefer their autonomy of some 70 years. To resist China, Taiwan has fostered a military ranked by online database GlobalFirePower.com as the world’s 24th strongest. Sino-U.S. ties are already strained by a growing trade dispute.

“Some might see spare parts as a kind of rejection, because what Taiwan really wants from the U.S. is many other larger items,” said Sean King, vice president of the Park Strategies political consultancy in New York. “But as I see it, this sale’s just another step in President Trump’s evolving support for Taiwan over the last 15 months or so.”

Gains for Taiwan

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense thanked Washington in a statement Tuesday, adding that the latest arms package would help it keep peace with China. “The arms sale indicates strong concern by the U.S. side toward our security,” the statement said.

Local defense ministry contractors have stepped up development of aircraft and missiles, but Taipei still relies on U.S. weaponry for its more advanced systems. China runs the world’s third strongest armed forces, including missiles that Taipei officials believed are aimed at Taiwan, and this year it announced an 8.1 percent defense budget increase.

The type and value of arms in the sale announced this week probably fall short of a laurel for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, whose party is campaigning now ahead of mid-term local elections, said Liu Yih-jiun, professor of public affairs at Fo Guang University in Taiwan.

But a longer trend of improved relations with the U.S. government – from a $1.42 billion U.S. arms package announced last year to Tsai’s two high-profile stopovers in U.S. territory last month – has raised hopes in Taiwan as China squelches the island’s diplomacy with other countries.

Chinese reaction

In China, a military spokesperson said the armed forces were “strongly dissatisfied with and resolutely opposed to planned U.S. arms sales to Taiwan,” Beijing’s official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday. The military formally protested to Washington, Xinhua said.

“Taiwan is a part of China and the one-China principle is the political foundation of China-U.S. relationship,” the spokesperson was quoted saying.

But experts call this type of reaction pro forma, short of retaliating against either the U.S. government or Taiwan. That’s partly because the sale excludes powerful weapons systems, Liu said.

“As long as they don’t sell Taiwan some kinds of F-35s and some kinds of most advanced equipment, then that could be a kind of (Sino-U.S. understanding),” he said. “They would register as some kind of goodwill on the part of the United States.”

When the U.S. government announced a $6.4 billion sale in 2010, Beijing called off scheduled Sino-U.S. military visits and threatened sanctions against American defense contractors doing business in China. After Beijing found out about last year’s sale, China said it was “outraged,” according to media reports at the time.

“If we (the United States) do end up selling Taiwan aircraft and or subs, I’d expect Beijing to pretty much lose it,” King said.

Sino-U.S. ties

Trump’s government may not want to anger China either, some scholars believe. The U.S. government has stepped up tariffs against China this year to cover some $250 billion worth of imports as Trump calls Beijing an unfair trader.

But Sino-U.S. trade talks are on hold, with Trump saying last month his government would focus first on North American trade issues. China may be eyeing November mid-term elections in the United States as a bellwether for the popularity of Trump and his trade policies, Liu said.

Taiwan should still brace for a longer-term Chinese reaction to the arms sale, said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank in Taiwan. He said the Chinese government will make it easy for Taiwanese to work, study and invest but could take action against it politically at the same time.

“China will continue to consolidate its two-handed approach,” Yang said. “On one hand, attract Taiwanese to engage in China, on the other hand holding a big stick and the stick is getting bigger and bigger.”

China has flown military aircraft near the island about a dozen times and persuaded five diplomatic allies to switch allegiance since Tsai took office in 2016. Tsai upsets Beijing because she disputes its formal dialogue condition that both sides belong to a single China.
…

President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro could be easily toppled by a military coup and the U.S stepped up financial pressure by slapping the socialist president’s inner circle with fresh sanctions. 

Trump declined to respond to questions about whether a U.S.-led military intervention in the crisis-stricken country was possible, saying he doesn’t reveal military strategy.

“It’s a regime that, frankly, could be toppled very quickly by the military if the military decides to do that,” Trump said in comments on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. “It’s a truly bad place in the world today.”

Earlier in the day, the Trump administration slapped financial sanctions on four members of Maduro’s inner circle, including his wife and the nation’s vice president, on allegations of corruption. 

As part of the actions, the U.S. barred Americans from doing business with and will seize any financial assets in the U.S. belonging to First Lady Cilia Flores, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino. 

“We are continuing to designate loyalists who enable Maduro to solidify his hold on the military and the government while the Venezuelan people suffer,” Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement.

Over the past two years the Trump administration has sanctioned dozens of individuals, including Maduro himself, on allegations of corruption, drug trafficking and human rights abuses. 

But until now it had spared key leaders like Delcy Rodriguez, as well as the U.S.-trained Padrino, believing they occupy seats of power and could play a key role in an eventual transition. 

David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has spent more than two decades living and working in Venezuela, said Tuesday’s actions would seem to suggest the U.S. has given up trying to sow division within the government in the hopes it could force a democratic transition from within.

“This clearly breaks from that strategy, said Smilde. “If everyone is sanctioned then it could end up uniting the government.”

Maduro later appeared on state television, thanking Trump for sanctions that he called a badge of honor for those around him in a battle against what he calls an imperialist power. He also blasted the sanctions targeting his wife. 

“If you want to attack me, come at me directly. But don’t touch Cilia and my family,” Maduro said, calling her an anti-imperialist warrior. “Her only crime is being my wife.”

Flores is an influential figure in her own right, and has served in congress as well as a constitutional assembly that has expansive powers.

Beyond rallying Maduro’s opponents, it’s unclear what impact the sanctions will have. 

For over a year, top U.S. officials have struggled to build support for more-sweeping oil sanctions, facing resistance from energy companies still active in the country and fearing it could tip the OPEC nation over the edge at a time of hyperinflation and widespread food and medicine shortages.

The latest sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department also seized a $20 million private jet belonging to an alleged front man for powerful socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello.

Trump publicly floated the idea of a military option in August 2017, but since then he has avoided making any direct references to a possible attack.

Maduro, however, has repeatedly accused the U.S. of backing attempts to overthrow him.

But Fernando Cutz, who until April led U.S. policy on Venezuela at the National Security Council under both Presidents Obama and Trump, said that only in unusual cases would the United States employ military action in Venezuela. 

An attack on the U.S. Embassy in Caracas harming American citizens would warrant a military response, he said, or a scenario where Venezuelan government forces slaughtered 1,000 or more of its own people. 

Cutz spoke publicly Monday at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington for the first time since leaving government. He said he did not back force as an option, but that it’s likely the only way the entrenched Maduro regime could be removed.

“For us to remove that from the table is irresponsible,” Cutz said. “We need to keep all the options on the table.”

Adding to the political pressure, a bi-partisan group of 11 senators on Monday introduced sweeping legislation that calls for expanding humanitarian relief to Venezuelans by $40 million and increasing pressure on Maduro’s government. 

“From the country’s plummeting economy to the deterioration of the rule of law, something has got to change,” said Senator David Perdue, a Georgia Republican and member of the Armed Services Committee. 

Vice President Mike Pence pledged an additional $48 million to help Venezuelans fleeing their country’s historic crisis, bringing the total U.S. aid since 2017 for Venezuelan refugees to $95 million. 

In a sign of simmering tensions, Pence also noted reports of Maduro sending troops to Venezuela’s border with Colombia, a U.S. ally, calling it an intimidation tactic.

“Let me be clear: the USA will always stand with our allies,” Pence tweeted. “The Maduro regime would do well not to test the resolve of (at)POTUS or the American people.”
…

Senate Republicans have hired an Arizona prosecutor to question a woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

A press release from committee chairman Chuck Grassley’s office described woman attorney Rachel Mitchell as “a career prosecutor with decades of experience prosecuting sex crimes.” Mitchell worked in the Maricopa County Attorney’s office in Phoenix as the chief of the Special Victims Division, which covers sex crimes and family violence.

Republicans have been keen to hire a woman to question Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh sexually assaulting her when both were teenagers, to avoid the appearance of bias by the all-male group of Republicans on the Senate panel.

The U.S. Senate’s partisan brawl over President Donald Trump’s embattled Supreme Court nominee intensified Tuesday, fewer than 48 hours before Judge Kavanaugh and Ford were expected to give contradictory testimony on the alleged incident. 

Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky accused Democrats of rushing to convict Kavanaugh and “destroy his good name” with unproven allegations, abandoning any presumption of innocence — a bedrock principle of American jurisprudence.

“Justice matters. Evidence matters. Facts matter,” McConnell said. “This is America here. … Everyone deserves better than this, not just Judge Kavanaugh.”

Senate Democrats countered that, if Republicans wanted to learn the facts about the nominee’s past behavior, they would not have rejected calls for an FBI investigation of the allegations against him.

Democrats also accused Republicans of treating Ford dismissively at a time when victims of sexual crimes are speaking out across the nation. Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a high school party in the 1980s, a charge the nominee has repeatedly denied.

“Labeling this a partisan smear job demeans not only the senators in my caucus,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said. “It demeans many, many women who have come forward … to share their stories.”

Schumer added, “Leader McConnell should rethink what he said in the heat of the moment and apologize to Dr. Ford.”

The sharp exchanges on the Senate floor came one day after Kavanaugh appeared on U.S. cable television — an unprecedented move for a Supreme Court nominee — to refute all allegations of sexual misconduct.

“I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone. Not in high school. Not ever,” Kavanaugh told Fox News, adding that he has no intention of bowing out of the nomination.

In New York, President Trump accused Democrats of mounting “a con game” and heaped scorn on a second accusation leveled against Kavanaugh, that he exposed himself at a college party decades ago.

The new allegation, reported Sunday by The New Yorker magazine, prompted the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California, to call for a postponement of Thursday’s highly anticipated hearing where Kavanaugh and Ford are to testify.

Republicans have rejected any further delays in the confirmation process. Instead, they scheduled a judiciary committee vote for Friday, which will be followed by consideration by the full Senate.

Kavanaugh, a judicial conservative and Trump’s second Supreme Court pick, was nominated to fill the vacancy created by Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement.

His confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate had seemed all but assured until allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced nearly two weeks ago.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy speech to the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly drew mixed reaction from world leaders. VOA’s Elizabeth Cherneff has this report looking at the international community’s response.
…

A deterioration in U.S.-China relations, seen most dramatically in their escalating trade dispute, is spilling over into the military arena.

The Pentagon on Tuesday confirmed that China had canceled a Washington visit by the head of its navy, and U.S. officials said China had denied a request for a U.S. Navy ship to make a port visit next month at Hong Kong.

Also on Tuesday, China demanded the Trump administration cancel a planned $330 million sale of military equipment to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing considers a renegade province. The Chinese foreign ministry warned of “severe damage” to bilateral relations if the sale announced Monday goes through. Washington has no official relations with Taiwan’s democratically elected government but is obliged by U.S. law to see that it has the means to defend itself.

The backdrop to these tensions is the U.S.-China trade dispute. Each imposed tariff increases on the other’s goods Monday, and Beijing accused the Trump administration of bullying. A Chinese official said China cannot hold talks on ending the trade dispute while the U.S. “holds a knife” to Beijing’s neck by imposing tariff hikes.

The two countries are mired in a dispute over Washington’s allegations that Beijing pilfers foreign trade secrets and forces U.S. companies to hand over technology in return for access to the Chinese market. The predatory practices, the U.S. says, are part of China’s relentless drive to challenge American technological dominance.

Also at stake, beyond economic cooperation, are U.S. hopes for gaining China’s help in persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. In his address Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Trump thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for his assistance with the North Korea problem, but he also blasted China for what he called unfair use of international trade rules to diminish U.S. jobs and deepen U.S. trade deficits.

“Those days are over. We will no longer tolerate such abuse,” Trump said.

Military ties between Washington and Beijing have been relatively stable in recent years, even as the U.S. complained of China militarizing reefs and islands in the South China Sea amid overlapping territorial claims by other Asian nations. In May, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis disinvited China from participating in a multinational naval exercise in the Pacific. Pentagon officials cited China’s military buildup on disputed South China Sea islands.

In recent days the breadth of military tensions has grown. A Pentagon spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn, said China informed the Pentagon that the chief of the Chinese navy has been recalled to Beijing, canceling a planned meeting with his American Navy counterpart at the Pentagon after visiting a naval conference at Newport, Rhode Island.

On Monday a reporter asked Mattis what he made of these developments and how he expected to address them.

“Right now, it’s too early to say. We’re still sorting this out,” he said, adding that he and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agree “we do have to have a relationship with China. … And so we’re sorting out the way ahead right now.”

Mattis visited Beijing in June, making him the first Pentagon chief to do so since 2014.

In addition to its anger over the $330 million military sale to Taiwan announced on Monday, China is strongly objecting to a U.S. decision to issue a visa ban and assets freeze on China’s Equipment Development Department and its director, Li Shangfu. The U.S. action relates to China’s purchase from Russia of Su-35 combat aircraft last year and S-400 surface-to-air missile system-related equipment this year. Those purchases violated a 2017 law intended to punish the Russian government for interfering in U.S. elections and other activities.

China’s Defense Ministry said the U.S. had no right to interfere in Chinese military cooperation with Russia and demanded the sanctions be revoked.

In a further act of retaliation, China turned down a request for an October port call in Hong Kong by the U.S. Navy’s amphibious assault ship USS Wasp. China last denied such a visit in 2016 amid a spike in tensions between the sides over the disputed South China Sea.

“We have a long track record of successful port visits to Hong Kong, and we expect that will continue,” said Eastburn, the Pentagon spokesman, in confirming that China had not approved the Wasp’s visit.
…