The Trump White House has given its backing to Taiwan’s request to buy more than 60 F-16 fighter jets, in a move that could upset China, according to a Bloomberg report on Thursday.
Advisers to President Trump encouraged Taiwan to formally request the jets, according to Bloomberg, which cited sources familiar with the matter.
The next step would be converting the request to a formal proposal by the Pentagon and State Department, after which Congress would have 30 days to decide whether to approve or block the sale.
{mosads}The Obama administration declined a similar request from Taiwan to avoid worsening tensions with the Chinese government, which does not recognize Taiwan as an independent state.
Taiwan did not include a specific number of jets in announcing its request, but the Bloomberg report puts the number approved by the Trump administration at more than 60.
The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Hill. Bloomberg reported the White House declined to comment.
While Trump has publicly said he remains committed to the United States’s longtime “One China” policy, he broke with precedent by having a phone conversation as president-elect with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen in December 2016.
This week, the Chinese government called on the U.S. to bar Tsai from entering Hawaii as part of a tour of the Pacific with stops in Nauru, the Marshall Islands and Palau.