WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s administration has for the first time approved direct US military aid to Taiwan under an assistance program aimed at foreign governments, officials said Wednesday, as worries grow over China.
The State Department informed Congress on Tuesday of the $80 million package, which is small compared with recent sales to Taiwan but marks the first assistance to Taipei under the Foreign Military Financing program, which generally involves grants or loans to sovereign countries.
The move is sure to anger China. For five decades, the United States has officially recognized only Beijing although Congress, under the Taiwan Relations Act, requires the supply of weapons to the self-governing democracy for its defense.
Successive US administrations have done so through sales rather than direct aid to Taiwan, with formal statements speaking in the tone of business transactions with the island’s de-facto embassy in Washington.
The State Department insisted that the first-ever aid under the program did not imply any recognition of sovereignty of Taiwan.
“Consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act and our longstanding One China policy, which has not changed, the United States makes available to Taiwan defense articles and services necessary to enable it to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability,” a State Department spokesperson said.
“The United States has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which is critical to regional and global security and prosperity.”
Taiwan’s defense ministry expressed gratitude. “The aid will help in regional peace and stability,” it said in a short statement.
The State Department did not formally announce the aid or give details, but a person familiar with the notice said the assistance would involve support to improve awareness at sea.
The assistance needs approval from Congress, which is virtually certain as lawmakers from both parties widely support Taiwan.
Representative Mike McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and frequent critic of Biden’s foreign policy, praised the step.
“These weapons will not only help Taiwan and protect other democracies in the region, but also strengthen the US deterrence posture and ensure our national security from an increasingly aggressive CCP,” he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
China and the United States in recent months have resumed dialogue with hopes of bringing greater stability to the turbulent relationship between the world’s largest developed and developing nations.
But Taiwan remains a clear point of friction, with Chinese officials repeatedly issuing warnings and viewing the United States as bent on supporting formal independence by the island.
China has carried out major military exercises three times in little more than a year in response to Taiwanese leaders’ interactions with the United States, raising the prospect it is practicing moves for an invasion.
Senior US officials have said they believe Chinese President Xi Jinping is taking steps away from the status quo on Taiwan, although American analysts debate to what extent both China’s recent economic concerns and Russia’s struggles to subdue Ukraine will dissuade Beijing.
It is the second time in as many months that the Biden administration has broken new ground in supporting Taiwan.
In July, Biden approved $345 million of military aid to Taiwan from leftover US stockpiles, taking a cue from one means of US support to Ukraine as it fights off a Russian invasion.
Israel is the top recipient of Foreign Military Financing, to the tune of more than $3 billion a year.
US approves first arms to Taiwan under foreign aid program
https://arab.news/vetc3
US approves first arms to Taiwan under foreign aid program
- State Department informed Congress of the $80 million package
- The move is sure to anger China
‘A den of bandits’: Rwanda closes thousands of evangelical churches
- A 2018 law introduced new rules on health, safety, and financial disclosures, and requires all preachers to have theological training
- Observers say the real reason for the closures comes down to control, noting that even those who complied with the law had been shut down
- President Kagame has described the church as a relic of the colonial period, a chapter of its history with which the country is still grappling
KIGALI: Grace Room Ministries once filled giant stadiums in Rwanda three times a week before the evangelical organization was shut down in May.
It is one of the 10,000 churches reportedly closed by the government for failing to comply with a 2018 law designed to regulate places of worship.
The law introduced new rules on health, safety, and financial disclosures, and requires all preachers to have theological training.
President Paul Kagame has been vocal in his criticisms of the evangelical churches that have sprouted across the small country in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
“If it were up to me I wouldn’t even reopen a single church,” Kagame told a news briefing last month.
“In all the development challenges we are dealing with, the wars... our country’s survival — what is the role of these churches? Are they also providing jobs? Many are just thieving... some churches are just a den of bandits,” he said.
The vast majority of Rwandans are Christian according to a 2024 census, with many now traveling long and costly distances to find places to pray.
Observers say the real reason for the closures comes down to control.
Kagame’s government is saying “there’s no rival in terms of influence,” Louis Gitinywa, a lawyer and political analyst based in Kigali, told AFP.
The ruling party “bristles when an organization or individual gains influence,” he said, a view also expressed to AFP by an anonymous government official.
‘Deceived’
The 2018 law requires churches to submit annual action plans stating how they align with “national values.” All donations must be channelled through registered accounts.
Pastor Sam Rugira, whose two church branches were shut down last year for failing to meet fire safety regulations, said the rules mostly affected new evangelical churches that have “mushroomed” in recent years.
But Kagame has described the church as a relic of the colonial period, a chapter of its history with which the country is still grappling.
“You have been deceived by the colonizers and you let yourself be deceived,” he said in November.
The closure of Grace Room Ministries came as a shock to many across the country.
Pastor Julienne Kabanda, had been drawing massive crowds to the shiny new BK Arena in Kigali when the church’s license was revoked.
The government had cited unauthorized evangelical activities and a failure to submit “annual activity and financial reports.”
AFP was unable to reach Kabanda for comment.
‘Open disdain, disgust’
A church leader in Kigali, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the president’s “open disdain and disgust” for churches “spells tough times ahead.”
“It is unfair that even those that fulfilled all requirements are still closed,” he added.
But some say the clampdown on places of worship is linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which around 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were slaughtered.
Ismael Buchanan a political science lecturer at the National University of Rwanda, told AFP the church could sometimes act as “a conduit of recruitment” for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the Hutu militia formed in exile in DR Congo by those who committed the genocide.
“I agree religion and faith have played a key role in healing Rwandans from the emotional and psychological wounds after the genocide, but it also makes no sense to have a church every two kilometers instead of hospitals and schools,” he said.
Pastor Rugira meanwhile suggested the government is “regulating what it doesn’t understand.”
It should instead work with churches to weed out “bad apples” and help them meet requirements, especially when it comes to the donations they rely on to survive, he said.
