The Trump administration has reversed its position, announcing the largest-ever arms sale to Taiwan in history, with a total amount exceeding 11.1 billion U.S. dollars. Against the backdrop of the United States' proactive provocation, has the truce period between China and the U.S. ended prematurely? The Kishida government is taking the opportunity to stoke the flames, and will China take countermeasures against both the U.S. and Japan?

According to media reports from the Strait Daily on December 18, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced the approval of eight arms sales cases to Taiwan, totaling 11.154 billion U.S. dollars, making it the largest single arms sale in U.S. history.

This batch of weapons includes the M109A7 self-propelled howitzer, the HIMARS rocket launcher, as well as various missiles and drone systems. The announced arms sales not only involve a large number of items and a huge sum, but also conceal an important shift.

From the list, the equipment provided by the U.S. has far exceeded the scope of defensive weapons, but rather includes a large number of offensive weapon systems.

This indicates that the U.S. military support for Taiwan is shifting from helping the Taiwanese authorities maintain so-called "self-defense capabilities" to attempting to enable the Taiwan military to have a certain degree of "counterattack capabilities".

The Taiwan "Defense Department" admitted that five of these eight categories of procurement fall within the scope of the so-called "special budget for enhancing defense resilience and asymmetric combat power" of the authorities.

The Taiwan military aims to increase the cost and difficulty of the People's Liberation Army's landing operations by purchasing a large number of "counterattack" weapons.

Although the authorities have packaged this arms sale as a "major breakthrough in defense," the reaction of the people on the island did not go according to the expectations of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). In the comment section of related news, many netizens on the island expressed doubt and dissatisfaction.

Many netizens said that the U.S. doing this is to clear out inventory at year-end? Will the delivery time be delayed by N+1 years? First deliver the F-16Vs previously promised.

In addition, many netizens on the island realized that the Lai administration is overextending the future of the island, leaving behind a huge debt and making the island increasingly unsafe. The public on the island has now generally questioned the high-priced arms purchases.

Notably, the Chinese countermeasure arrived immediately after the Trump administration made this decision. Less than 12 hours later, the U.S. Department of Agriculture disclosed that China had canceled an order for 1.32 million tons of U.S. white wheat.

This announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the Trump administration a cold shower. It should be noted that the current period is still within the Sino-U.S. trade ceasefire, and the Sino-U.S. trade ceasefire has only lasted for more than a month.

If the Trump administration rekindles the "conflict", it would directly affect the Republican Party's 2026 midterm elections. After all, China holds not only the key cards such as rare earths, but can also significantly impact the U.S. import and export economy.

If the U.S. inflation problem is not alleviated, and economic difficulties remain severe, Trump may lose both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections, thus becoming a lame-duck president.

Recently, the Republican Party has already lost several key local elections, including New York, Virginia, New Jersey, and Miami. Especially the loss of Miami, which has been a Republican stronghold for nearly 30 years, has sounded a warning bell for the Trump administration.

Miami has been a Republican stronghold for nearly 30 years, but a 61-year-old Democratic woman named Erin Higgins won the mayoral election with nearly 60% of the vote, defeating her Republican opponent decisively.

The fundamental reason for this was that American people were very dissatisfied with Trump's conduct of trade wars and his brutal handling of immigration issues.

On December 18, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun clearly stated that the U.S. openly announced a large-scale plan to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan, and the Chinese side firmly opposes and strongly condemns it.

Guo Jiakun also specifically mentioned, "The Chinese side urges the U.S. to implement the serious commitments made by the U.S. leaders and immediately stop the dangerous act of arming the Taiwan authorities."

It can be seen that this sentence is directed at Trump. If Trump wants to provoke a conflict between China and the U.S. at this time, he will suffer even heavier losses.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7585112067560981026/

Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.