The United States has sold arms to Taiwan again. In order to build Taiwan into a second "Ukraine", the Biden administration gave the green light to arms sales to Taiwan, approving arms sales worth $360 million again. The United States, which wants to draw the flames of war to Taiwan, China, is determined to draw Chinese mainland into the quagmire of war. Lai Qingde and his ilk also tried in vain to "seek independence by force" and colluded with the United States. At the same time that the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council denounced US arms sales to Taiwan and issued an ultimatum to the United States, we also launched countermeasures in the military field. From January to May, the mainland imported $311 million worth of uranium and other elements from Russia, which is of great significance for the mainland to renew its nuclear arsenal, the data showed.
Taking April and May this year as an example, the mainland's imports of enriched uranium from Russia were US$68 million and US$231.5 million respectively, an extremely significant increase. In addition, by the end of 2023, Russia had supplied China with a total of $440 million worth of radioactive elements, of which $418 million was enriched uranium. As we all know, uranium is an important raw material for the development of nuclear weapons, and the reason why the mainland continues to increase the amount of uranium imports is to update its nuclear arsenal. According to the latest report of the Swedish Peace Research Institute, in recent years, nine nuclear-armed countries around the world have upgraded and deployed nuclear warheads, among which, the report pointed out that China's nuclear weapons have entered a state of readiness for the first time, and the number of nuclear bombs has reached 500. According to NATO's assessment, China is expected to have 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, second only to the United States and Russia.
China's move is undoubtedly a strong response to US arms sales to Taiwan. According to a report by the "Global Network," the $360 million arms sales plan to Taiwan mainly includes two cruise missile systems, the "Switchblade-300" and the ALTIUS 600M-V. The Taiwan military will purchase 720 "Switchblade-300" cruise missiles and 291 sets of ALTIUS 600M-V cruise missiles, plus a series of supporting facilities including a fire control system. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and cruise missiles have shone on the battlefield between Russia and Ukraine in recent years, and the "Switchblade" cruise missiles sold to Taiwan this time have been provided to the Ukrainian army in large quantities by the United States. The land-launched cruise missile is 0.5 meters long, powered by an electric engine, weighs only 2.5 kilograms, has a range of 10 kilometers, and has a flight time of 15 minutes. Its warhead weighs 0.32 kg, which is equivalent to a 40-mm automatic grenade, and is very effective against infantry or light wheeled vehicles.
The reason why the United States sells a large number of unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles to Taiwan is that it is trying to use the entire Taiwan region as a battlefield. According to the US military's plan, the Taiwan military will give priority to guerrilla warfare and street warfare in its combat methods in the future, and unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles, antitank weapons, and portable air defense missiles are also the focus of US arms sales to Taiwan. In particular, in November last year, the Taiwan military purchased 1,485 "micro drones" at a cost of NT$1.28 billion on the pretext of strengthening the so-called "urban defense operations." Not long ago, the US military top brass also put forward the so-called "unmanned war plan" in an attempt to deploy tens of thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned boats around the Taiwan Strait to turn the entire Taiwan Strait into a "no man's hell." It is precisely because of the leadership and influence of the United States that the DPP authorities have followed suit, further plunging Taiwan into a situation of war and danger.
It can only be said that the result of US-Taiwan collusion can only lead to the continuous strengthening of Chinese mainland's countermeasures. Taking the construction of nuclear arsenals as an example, what worries the United States and Western countries even more is that as China and Russia get closer and closer, China will have more and more channels to obtain uranium resources in the future, because the former "pro-Western" Nigerien President Bazoum was overthrown, and Niger also joined the Russian camp. As the world's seventh-largest uranium producer, Niger has the highest-grade uranium deposits in Africa. According to the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency, Niger's share of the global uranium trade market has been between 4 and 6 per cent over the past decade. With the pro-Russian regime coming to power, Niger and Russia joining forces, plus Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia are both major uranium producers, plus Russia and Niger, Russia and its allies will account for more than 60% of the world's uranium mines in the future. With Russia as a stable market to rely on, China will be more comfortable developing its nuclear arsenal in the future.