China calls for the US to immediately halt arms sale to Taiwan....

via Asia Times.
US State Department has approved a possible $2.2-billion arms deal for Taiwan – angering Beijing which called for Washington to “immediately cancel” the proposal.

The sale of more than 100 Abrams tanks, 250 Stinger missiles and other equipment was announced by the Pentagon on Monday. It said the sale of these weapons – plus armored vehicles, heavy equipment transporters and mounted machine guns – was requested by Taiwan and “would not alter the basic military balance in the region”.

China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, had an angry reaction to the news, which has come at a sensitive time, just days after Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to restart talks on their protracted trade dispute.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang claimed on Tuesday that US arms sales to Taiwan were a violation of international law and a “crude interference in China’s internal affairs, harming China’s sovereignty and security interests,” Reuters reported.

“China is strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposed to this and has already made stern representations to the US side,” Geng said at the daily news briefing. “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China’s territory and nobody should underestimate the Chinese government’s and people’s firm determination to defend the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and oppose foreign interference.”

Story here. 

Anything that makes the Chinese howl like this has to be considered a good thing.  What surprises me is the series of moves.

They allow the Hong Kong govt to shelve the bill that caused the riots/protests but then make this a big deal?

I don't understand the thinking.

At best I imagine they're playing a long game in both cases.  Hong Kong is already in their sphere of influence and if worst comes to pass they can simply conduct snatch and grabs of the most vile citizens inside Hong Kong to show that they're working to make China safer...and wait till later to go after the big fish.  The people that have been thorns in their sides for decades.

With Taiwan this seems like a bit of grand standing.  I was getting to the point of discounting the "saving of face" nature of the Pacific region but I'm guessing that this protest is all about that.

Regardless.

Taiwan is a lost cause.  Too close to China.  Too many Quislings inside their govt/population.  Too tough to defend without starting WW3.

I just hope they're detuned to the Nth degree cause as soon as they land you know some "Chinese patriot" will be reverse engineering and send specs back to Beijing.

Sidenote.  The Taiwanese are getting a pretty substantial arms package.  Check it out here.