Washington — Two senior US Republican senators asked the Trump administration on Monday to allow the sale of Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets to Taiwan, saying it would help it "remain a democracy" in the face of threats from China. China’s hostility towards Taiwan has grown since Tsai Ing-wen, from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, won presidential elections on the island in 2016. China claims Taiwan as its own, and the self-ruled island is one of China’s most sensitive issues. "These fighters will have a positive impact on Taiwan’s self-defense and would act as a necessary deterrent to China’s aggressive military posture across the Asia-Pacific region," US senators John Cornyn, the assistant majority leader, and James Inhofe, a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said in a letter to President Donald Trump. "After years of military modernisation, China shows the ability to wage war against Taiwan for the first time since the 1950s," they wrote. "However...
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