Taiwan Security Chief: China Deployed ‘Over 100 Vessels’ in Regional Waters

Taiwan’s security chief said Saturday that China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in regional waters stretching from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and Western Pacific. The deployment happened in the past few days after US President Donald Trump’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing, National Security Council chief Joseph Wu said on X. “In this part of the world,#China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu said in the post. China claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize it. Wu’s remarks came after Trump on Wednesday referred to “the Taiwan problem” when asked if he would speak to Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te about arms sales to the democratic island. “I’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody,” Trump said, adding that he had a great meeting with Xi during his state visit. “We’ll work on that, the Taiwan problem,” Trump said. A Taiwan security official told AFP on the condition of anonymity that Chinese vessels had been detected before the summit in Beijing, but that the numbers went above 100 in recent days. Meanwhile, a source said US arms sales to Taiwan take years to process and are unrelated to the war with Iran, after a senior US official suggested there was a pause due to the need to have enough arms for the conflict. Taiwan has been waiting for the US to approve an arms sale that Reuters reported could be worth up to $14 billion. On Thursday, ⁠acting US Navy ⁠Secretary Hung Cao told a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing that there was a pause on arms sales to Taiwan to make sure the US had the munitions needed for the Operation Epic Fury attack on Iran. The source familiar with the matter noted that Trump has said he would decide on the Taiwan arms sales soon. “These sales take years to process and are unrelated to Operation Epic Fury,” the source ⁠said, referring to the war the US and Israel launched in February. “The United States military has more than enough munitions, ammo, and stockpiles to serve all of President Trump’s strategic goals and beyond.”