USA Aims to Turn Taiwan Into Giant Weapons Depot...

WASHINGTON - American officials are intensifying efforts to build a giant stockpile of weapons in Taiwan after studying recent naval and air force exercises by the Chinese military around the island, according to current and former officials. The effort to transform Taiwan into a weapons depot faces challenges. Mr. Biden said last month that U.S. troops would defend Taiwan if China were to carry out an "Unprecedented attack" on the island - the fourth time he has stated that commitment and a shift from a preference for "Strategic ambiguity" on Taiwan among U.S. presidents. Recently, the Ukrainians have pummeled Russian troops with mobile American-made rocket launchers known as HIMARS. To transform Taiwan into a "Porcupine," an entity bristling with armaments that would be costly to attack, American officials have been trying to steer Taiwanese counterparts toward ordering more of those weapons and fewer systems for a conventional ground war like M1 Abrams tanks. The Biden administration announced on Sept. 2 that it had approved its sixth weapons package for Taiwan - a $1.1 billion sale that includes 60 Harpoon coastal antiship missiles. Some senior senators are trying to push through the proposed Taiwan Policy Act, which would provide $6.5 billion in security assistance to Taiwan over the next four years and mandate treating the island as if it were a "Major non-NATO ally." China has probably studied the strategic failure of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he said, and the United States should continue to send the kinds of arms to Taiwan that will make either an amphibious invasion or an attack with long-range weapons much more difficult for China.