US ‘Taken Aback’ by UAE’s Decision to Suspend F-35 Sale Talks: Chinese Media

UAE’s “countermeasures” against American conditions to purchase F-35 jets and other weapons has taken the American side aback, and it has already softened its stand with several officials expressing hope that the negotiations would be restarted down the road.

The Biden administration has threatened UAE to downgrade its strategic cooperation with China and dismantle the installed Huawei 5G network devices in the next four years as one of the main conditions for proceeding with the sale of F-35 jets to Abu Dhabi, a commentary in China’s official military newspaper, Chinamil.com.cn said today.

However, the US would neither bear the expenses involved nor provide alternative devices. That’s equivalent to asking the UAE to spend a huge amount of money pulling itself from the 5G age back to the 4G age, the commentary said.

The US is fully aware that Huawei’s 5G network is a commercial and completely different system from the military communication system. The untenable excuse given by the US is driven by some deeper considerations.

In recent years, China and UAE have enjoyed fruitful cooperation in energy, tech, medical and other areas within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. The buoyant cooperation makes the US green with envy, and UAE, therefore, gets picked on most (in the Middle East) for its flourishing cooperation with China.

China’s rapid progress in such areas as 5G network, new energy and AI has broken America’s technological monopoly. Being unable to catch up technologically, Washington, seriously disgruntled, has resorted to coercing its allies into stopping the tech cooperation with China, the newspaper said.

The US policy that (arms) deals will be made only when allies serve US’ anti-China and anti-Russia strategic goals has backfired in the case of the UAE which sees the economic, trade and technology cooperation with China as the key engine for the country’s future development.

An important reason why UAE dares to say no to the US is that Abu Dhabi can lay its hands on similar weapons, equipment and advanced technologies from other countries. Just days ago, it signed a huge arms contract with France to buy 80 F-4 Rafale fighters and 12 attack helicopters. Although UAE claimed the two deals were independent from each other, it’s apparent that the existence of alternative options has given it the nerve and confidence to fight back against America’s bullying.

The UAE announced at the 2019 Mobile World Congress that it would use equipment from Huawei to build a new 5G wireless network, despite pressure by the United States.