Senior members of the US House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would force US President Barack Obama to consult with Congress and keep it informed about potential arms sales to Taiwan.
Sources said that one immediate impact would be to pressure the White House to make a decision on Taiwan’s request to buy 66 advanced F-16 C/D fighters.
Advisers to Obama have recently indicated that at this stage a decision is not likely to be made until well into next year.
The new bill — H.R. 4102 — was introduced by Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Taiwan Caucus co-chairs Shelley Berkley, Phil Gingrey and Lincoln Diaz-Balart plus four other representatives.
If passed, it would require the Obama administration to provide detailed briefings to Congress on all US arms sales to Taiwan and would “mandate briefings no later than 90 days after the date of the enactment and at least annually thereafter.
In addition the secretary of state, in consultation with the secretary of defense, would be required to inform Congress about any discussions between any US government officials and the government of Taiwan.
The briefings must include any potential transfer of weapons or defense services to Taiwan.
The idea is to ensure that Congress is fully informed of the administration’s arms talks with Taiwan and is not surprised — as has happened in the past — by White House decisions coming out of the blue.
The introduction of the bill was timely “because Taiwan supporters are disturbed by President Obama’s statements in China,” said Bob Yang (楊英育), president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, a group based in Washington.
“He failed to mention the Taiwan Relations Act [TRA] while saying that the US respects China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity through the three joint communiques. That’s likely to embolden China to press even harder her spurious claim over Taiwan,” Yang said.
“Such statements seriously undermine US legitimacy to continue providing defense articles and services to Taiwan as codified in the TRA,” he said.
“For the past few years, members of Congress have been expressing strong concern about the stalemate in US arms sales to Taiwan. Their repeated appeals to the administration have gone unheeded. Annual briefings, as mandated by this bill, will reassert Congress’ prerogative to co-determine with the president the nature and the quantity of defense articles and services sold to Taiwan,” Yang said.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he