Taiwan wants to buy F-35 fighter jets and Patriot missiles to show Trump it’s serious: report

https://www.businessinsider.com/taiwan-f35-patriot-purchase-signal-defense-readiness-trump-china-weapons-2024-11

28 comments

  1. Taiwan shouldn’t buy F35s and Patriots to show Trump that it is serious.

    Taiwan should buy F35s and Patriots because it ***is*** serious.

  2. They will have to invest in a major “to be announced” Trump property to be serious.

  3. after a traitor chopper pilot plot to defect by flying a Chinook helicopter to mainland China was exposed I don’t think the US is willing to risk a modern jet like F35 to be part of Taiwan’s air force

  4. Thatd be a horrible move by the US. Way too risky that china could get ahold of the f35 and the tech. Whether it’s a traitor or infiltration, they dont want them over there under non-us control.

    An old patriot system is probably fine to send though. Same as we’re doing for Ukraine.

  5. If I were in charge of the defence of Taiwan, I’d put a similar order (or split the order) with other allies. European, Korean and Japanese defence industry.

    In the way of a threat “We are serious, with or without you.” type of thing.

  6. Taiwan, Japan, Philippines, and SK need to get over the past like Europe did and join up with 1 currency and 1 military. Maybe Vietnam too.

  7. Taiwan doesn’t need F-35s. They need tons of drones, missiles, sea mines and air-launched torpedoes.

    Taiwan needs to be able to turn the Straits into a death zone for ships and helicopters so that China can’t physically get to Taiwan.

    And thousands of mobile missile launchers hidden in the mountains is the way to that.

  8. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the new right is abandoning Taiwan. They can’t even agree to send Ukraine excess weaponry. No chance they’d be onboard actively getting involved in the Taiwan strait. If China were to invade or encircle, we’d hear the same anti-Ukraine talking points about not wanting to start WWIII, it’s not our problem, etc. Reagan would be ashamed what the modern GOP has become.

  9. 1. Trump threatens to pull out of Nato if the others doesn’t spend 2% on defense.
    2. Putin help get Trump elected.
    3. Half of Europe and Asia starts spending 5% on defense, acquires nukes.
    4. Trump spends 4 years playing golf, forgets about Nato.
    5. Putin remains a master strategist.

  10. This is mostly theater to placate a simple mind who believes Taiwan isn’t “paying” enough. The reality is there is currently a 5-10 year backlog of weapons Taiwan has already purchased from the USA.

  11. Trump is loyal to no one.

    If you are doing something in the hopes of influencing, you are shooting yourself in the foot.

    Taiwan needs to do what it needs to independently of what he says or does.

  12. This is smart. They understand Trump views his relationships transactionally so this is the perfect way to get on his good side.

  13. I would say that it might risky to give the f-35 tech to Taiwan…. If Taiwan loses or get captured…. The Chinese then will have the full thing and also people trained to run the platform

  15. It should be buying a ton of mobile anti-ship launchers and missiles, in addition to the Patriots. F-35 is not good use of money given the circumstances.

  16. I honestly doubt the Taiwanese will fight 1/4 as hard as Ukraine has. And I fully do not believe Trump would come to their aid with boots. It’s only a matter of time.

  17. Patriots might happen, F35 won’t. Taiwanese military has had issues with traitors and spies for as long as it has existed.

  18. Given Republican’s loose grasp on the concept of power projection through bi-lateral defense partnerships, I would hope that nations in the Indo-pacific would open to expanding domestic defence industries over just buying whatever America peddles.

  19. I think the only concern is that if Taiwan somehow loses, all these equipment will fall into the hands of u know who. As soon as it is taken care of we should help Taiwan as much as possible

  20. They don’t need F35’s. They will only ever fight a defensive war and an F35 is an offensive weapon.

    They need F15’s and F16s. They currently operate 114 F16’s, get that number up to around 300 or so, and add another 100 F15’s.

    The US has many more than this amount sitting out in the Arizona desert….

  21. I posted this elsewhere but suspect it doesnt actually have much to do with the F35s and Patriots, moreso to do with America’s committment to Taiwan and forcing a business deal based answer to that question in front of Trump. It’s about making an offer Trump can’t refuse unless he has a preconceived plan to let Taiwan fall to China and nailing him on that early, so they can in fact buy all the right shit that they need. That’s the catch-22, if they say yes, they don’t need a hyper specific set of tools to beat China (they like cant alone) because America will save them. If they say no, they don’t get the F35s and Patriots and they can focus their money on more effective defense ie massive number of drones to actually deter China.

    This is incredible political gamesmanship, in my opinion. Bravo Taiwan.

  22. Moronic weapons choices. It’s attempting to scam Trump who is transactional.

  23. they should also fly and use them to defend themselves.

  25. Short of nukes nothing can save them from China…

  26. I’m definitely against Taiwan getting any cutting edge military hardware, it’ll just end up in Chinese hands.

    Taiwan as a population isn’t hostile enough to China for me to expect they’ll mount a defense minus active US combat aid. Taiwan will negotiate some kind of special integration plan with China like Hong Kong had and hope for the best.

  27. I doubt they give f-35s to Taiwan. The last thing they need is allowing the Chinese close proximity to collect data on them.

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