state department — The United States has pledged to continue providing Taiwan with equipment and services essential for maintaining a self-defense capability in line with the threats it faces. This statement came as an annual U.S.-Taiwan defense industry conference kicked off Sunday in Philadelphia.
In the lead-up to the event, the conference organizer — the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council (USTBC) — was targeted by a phishing cyberattack involving a forged registration form embedded with information-stealing malware.
Despite the hackers’ attempt, the council — a nonprofit trade association founded in 1976 to promote commerce between the U.S. and Taiwan — thwarted the attack. The identity of the attackers remains unknown.
“As the council has been targeted by similar attacks for more than 20 years, we realized quickly that the document was suspicious,” USTBC said in a statement. The statement added that the council submitted the document to an online virus scanner, confirmed it was malicious and deleted it.
This year’s U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference, which ends Tuesday, is the 23rd annual event in a series of conferences addressing U.S. defense cooperation with Taiwan.
“There will be considerable focus on how Taiwan’s efforts to deter a Chinese attack are progressing … and how U.S. industry should support the U.S. and Taiwan government policy,” said Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council.
“This is the most important annual gathering of U.S. industry and policymakers on U.S.-Taiwan defense relations,” he added.
Taiwan Relations Act
The State Department said that American officials’ participation in the annual conference aligns with long-standing U.S. policy.
Swift provision of equipment and services “is essential for Taiwan’s self-defense, and we will continue to work with industry to support that goal,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.
“We continue to have an abiding interest in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Our ‘One China’ policy has not changed and remains guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, three joint communiques and six assurances,” the spokesperson added.
The 1979 U.S.-China Joint Communique shifted diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan’s formal name, to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Relations between the U.S. and Taiwan have since been governed by the Taiwan Relations Act, passed by Congress in April 1979, under which the U.S. provides defense equipment to Taiwan.
The act states that “any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes,” is a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of “grave concern to the United States.”
For decades, the U.S. has been clear that its decision to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1979 rested on the expectation that “the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means,” as stipulated in the Taiwan Relations Act.
China has objected to the Taiwan Relations Act — a U.S. public law — and deemed it invalid.
In 2022, the U.S. Congress authorized the president to direct the drawdown of up to $1 billion per fiscal year in Defense Department equipment and services for Taiwan. Since 2010, the State Department has authorized more than $38 billion in foreign military sales to Taiwan.
PRC sanctioned nine US firms
Since its establishment in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan, but it views the democratically governed island as its own territory and has vowed to bring Taiwan under its control, even by force.
In recent years, the PRC has frequently sent military vessels near Taiwan and warplanes into its air defense identification zone to pressure the island to accept Chinese sovereignty.
Last week, China announced sanctions against nine American companies in response to U.S. defense equipment sales to Taiwan. Beijing’s latest action aims to exert additional pressure on Washington to halt its arms sales to the Taipei government.
The sanctions followed the U.S. approval of an estimated $228 million package of spare parts and other hardware for Taiwan’s aging air force.
In Beijing, officials asserted that U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan undermine China’s sovereignty and security interests.
“China urges the U.S. to earnestly abide by the one China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques and immediately stop the dangerous trend of arming Taiwan,” said Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during a recent briefing.
“We will take strong and resolute measures to firmly defend our national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” Lin added.
The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s “one China principle,” the U.S. State Department said. “The PRC continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy.”