Taiwan’s recently approved supplementary defense budget is an important investment in deterrence and stability in the Taiwan Strait—and shows that Taiwan takes its self-defense seriously and stands ready to purchase defense systems from the United States. Approving the $14 billion arms sale package honors America’s well-established commitments to Taiwan and will help safeguard our national and economic security.

🚨🇨🇳 TAIWAN SEPARATISTS IN PANIC: CHINA GIVES TAIWAN-FACING BRIGADE ITS OWN PLZ-05 LONG-RANGE HOWITZERS China has pushed one of its most powerful artillery systems down from group-army formations to a heavy combined-arms brigade in the Eastern Theater Command. A brigade under the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) 71st Group Army received a batch of PLZ-05 155mm tracked self-propelled howitzers over the past two months, replacing older 122mm guns, and has already completed its first live-fire test. It is the first publicly confirmed case of PLZ-05s being assigned directly at brigade level. Instead of waiting for higher command to attach a separate long-range artillery formation, the brigade now controls its own heavy firepower. 🔸 Target coordinates from reconnaissance drones, radars and forward observers can be sent directly to the brigade’s guns, shortening the time between detecting a target and opening fire. 🔸 The PLZ-05’s automatic loader supports a maximum rate of around 8–10 rounds per minute. With BeiDou-guided WS-35 projectiles, it can strike targets at distances of up to 100 km, dramatically expanding the brigade’s reach compared with its older 122mm artillery. 🔸 Its tracked chassis allows the howitzers to move alongside tanks and infantry fighting vehicles across difficult terrain while providing greater crew protection than lighter truck-mounted guns. 🔸 The brown desert camouflage on the newly delivered batch suggests that the howitzers may have been transferred from the Western Theater Command, where lighter PCL-181 truck-mounted systems are better suited to long road movements and mountainous terrain. 🔸 The 71st Group Army belongs to the Eastern Theater Command, responsible for operations around the Taiwan Strait. In a conflict, its PLZ-05s could provide sustained fire against coastal defenses, artillery positions, command posts and supply hubs once these targets are within range. China is also testing an experimental 155mm naval gun. If it becomes compatible with existing army ammunition, the PLA Ground Force and Navy could eventually draw on a broader common stock of modern 155mm shells. China is giving frontline brigades firepower previously controlled at a higher level, reducing response times and allowing them to fight more independently. Could Taiwan’s defenses withstand sustained fire once PLA brigades bring their own PLZ-05s into range?

🚨🇨🇳 TAIWAN SEPARATISTS IN PANIC: CHINA’S Z-10 ATTACK HELICOPTERS REHEARSE WAVE-TOP NIGHT STRIKES China’s PLA Army Aviation is expanding its role from land support to maritime operations, training its Z-10 attack helicopters for missions that could become critical during a conflict across the Taiwan Strait. Recent exercises saw one aviation brigade conduct continuous day-and-night sorties. The helicopters carried air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles alongside unguided rockets. 🔸 Terrain-masked approach: Crews used mountains as cover before emerging near the coast, limiting the time available for enemy radars to detect them. 🔸 Wave-top penetration: The Z-10s crossed the sea at extremely low altitude, staying beneath much of the defending side’s radar coverage. 🔸 Coordinated attacks: Operating in pairs and three-aircraft formations, crews located and engaged aerial and maritime training targets while hovering and on the move. 🔸 Mixed weapons: A single formation could threaten enemy helicopters, drones, boats, radar stations and fortified coastal positions. 🔸 Night operations: Darkness, low-altitude flight and constant maneuvering allow the helicopters to approach with less warning and sustain attacks around the clock. The drills were not officially identified as Taiwan-specific. However, these tactics would suit strikes against radars, coastal missile batteries, observation posts and command nodes on Taiwan’s outlying islands before larger PLA forces moved across the strait. Which poses the greater danger: wave-top flight or night operations?

Any conflict across the Taiwan Strait would have a bigger impact on the global economy than World War Two, and the upcoming US-China summit is an opportunity to avoid miscalculations, the top US diplomat in Taipei said

🇨🇳 🇹🇼 | “Taiwan has never been a country.” KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun is leading a direct offensive against the ruling DPP's separatist trajectory, pushing for improved cross-strait relations with Beijing. The DPP's US-aligned politics have steered the island toward an increasingly dangerous standoff with the People's Republic of China, which has maintained its claim to Taiwan as sovereign Chinese territory since the 1949 civil war, when KMT Nationalists retreated to the island following their defeat by the Communist Party. Washington intervened in 1950, deploying the 7th Fleet to the Taiwan Strait and freezing what Beijing considers unfinished business. Western governments and media have since worked hard to project a uniform Taiwanese desire for independence, but a 200,000-strong protest in Taipei recently told a different story, with improved cross-strait relations among the central demands. The KMT argues that Taiwanese identity is inseparable from Chinese civilization. The DPP has spent decades building a competing narrative. Washington has spent decades bankrolling it.

American support for Taiwan is not up for negotiation. As China increases pressure across the Taiwan Strait, the United States must remain clear and consistent in standing with our allies, defending stability in the Indo-Pacific, and deterring aggression.