Taiwan needs US weapons for self-defense as threat from China grows, diplomat tells AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taiwan needs to purchase American weapons to ensure its self-defense in the face of a growing threat from Beijing, the island’s top diplomat in the U.S. said, adding that he has seen no change in Washington’s policy toward the self-governing island that China claims as its own.

A $14 billion arms sale package to Taiwan is still in limbo after President Donald Trump returned from Beijing in May and said he had discussed the proposal “in great detail” with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, heightening anxieties in Taiwan and raising concerns among lawmakers on the Capitol Hill.

“We need those arms for defensive purposes,” Alexander Yui Tah-ray, who heads the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S., told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday in Washington. “We’re trying to increase our defense expenditure. We try to increase our ability to defend ourselves better and survive times of crisis.”

The Trump administration has not moved forward with the $14 billion weapons sale proposal after approved by senior lawmakers earlier this year. Trump has described the sale as a “very good negotiating chip” with China.

Washington is obligated by domestic law to provide Taiwan with sufficient hardware to deter aggression from China...