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On Dec. 17, the State Department announced approval for a major arms sales package to Taiwan. The package authorizes $11 billion worth of weapons and equipment sales to Taiwan, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, howitzers, Altius drone systems, and two missile systems. The sales are unlikely to face significant opposition in Congress. So, much now depends on Taiwan’s own defense budget and its ability to buy the weapons. China condemned the potential sales, responding by sanctioning several U.S. companies and individuals, and the announcement likely contributed to China’s decision to conduct large-scale military exercises around Taiwan.We asked four experts to provide their insights on steps that the United States and Taiwan can take to ensure that the arms sales package will effectively help Taiwan defend itself.Read more below.Raymond Kuo Director of the Taiwan Policy Initiative and a Senior Political Scientist at RANDThere is a lot of “good” in the package, especially anti-tank and artillery systems that can attrit incoming Chinese forces and destroy a lodgment. Taiwan still has to train its forces on this equipment, but my contacts there say the military is aggressively improving and modernizing.Missing are an integrated aerial defense system (such as the T-Dome) and equipment to integrate intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets with tactical communications. Those should be funded out of Taiwan’s special defense budget, but the opposition parties have repeatedly blocked the introduction of the NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.8 billion) bill.Normally, the U.S. government could help break this partisan gridlock by declaring defense spending critical to the bilateral relationship, but the Trump administration’s transactional policy has increased skepticism of American commitment — to the point that the new Kuomintang Chairperson Cheng Li-Wen can publicly oppose raising defense spending above 3 percent of GDP.Washington can resolve this by demonstrating that it takes Taiwan’s interests seriously and that it will not sell out Taiwan as part of