The US House of Representatives on Sept. 9 voted overwhelmingly to pass the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act of 2023. The core content of the act is to impose financial sanctions on the most senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their immediate relatives with the goal of preventing a Chinese military invasion of Taiwan. This act symbolizes the US’ close attention to Taiwan’s safety and uses strict economic measures to intimidate the CCP from attempting to escalate tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
The act states that the moment China initiates an invasion of Taiwan, financial sanctions would immediately take effect against CCP officials and members of their immediate family. This would include freezing all of their assets in the US and elsewhere. They would also be prohibited from accessing the US financial system.
The act simultaneously calls on the US government to mobilize the international community and urge other nations to impose sanctions on CCP officials. The act’s purpose is to counter the individual wealth and global influence of Chinese leaders, forcing them to think very carefully about issues surrounding Taiwan before acting rashly.
The bill was introduced by US Representative French Hill, who indicated that its intention is to force the CCP to understand that any and all hostile military action against Taiwan would result in severe consequences at both the personal and international levels.
Hill said the US must ensure that senior CCP officials cannot so frivolously threaten Taiwan’s sovereignty without paying a price. He emphasized that imposing sanctions on the wealth of CCP officials would effectively deter their unchecked ambition toward Taiwan.
Aside from the sanctions on CCP officials, the bill also emphasizes that the US would utilize the influence of international financial organizations — in particular the IMF — to unite other nations to jointly pressure China. The US would employ the power of discourse to prevent China from further increasing its influence over currencies and economies. This goal was also behind the Chinese Currency Accountability Act of 2023, which similarly attempts to restrain China’s global economic expansion.
The act illustrates the US’ increasingly tough policy toward China — particularly in the context of Taiwan — and would likely lead to heightened tensions between the two nations. With military affairs in the Taiwan Strait growing more complicated by the day, the US House passed the act to make clear to the world its determination to defend Taiwan.
US economic pressure on China is not limited to the realms of technology and trade, but now extends to sanctions on individual CCP officials. This would undoubtedly intensify hostilities between the two nations. China would likely come up with a sharp response that would garner attention from the international community.
Whether the US’ financial sanctions successfully prevent the CCP from threatening Taiwan would be decided by both international cooperation and the methods employed by the Chinese leadership to respond to this pressure.
The act exhibits the US government’s unyielding attitude toward Taiwan’s defense by utilizing financial sanctions to control China’s aggressive behavior. It has added yet another variable to the China-US relationship and would influence the development of the strategic situation in the Taiwan Strait.
Achieving a balance in the realms of diplomacy, economics and military affairs has become a crucial challenge that must be confronted by the US, Taiwan and the rest of the international community.
Kristy Cho is a writer.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
Chinese state-owned companies COSCO Shipping Corporation and China Merchants have a 30 percent stake in Kaohsiung Port’s Kao Ming Container Terminal (Terminal No. 6) and COSCO leases Berths 65 and 66. It is extremely dangerous to allow Chinese companies or state-owned companies to operate critical infrastructure. Deterrence theorists are familiar with the concepts of deterrence “by punishment” and “by denial.” Deterrence by punishment threatens an aggressor with prohibitive costs (like retaliation or sanctions) that outweigh the benefits of their action, while deterrence by denial aims to make an attack so difficult that it becomes pointless. Elbridge Colby, currently serving as the Under
The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday last week said it ordered Internet service providers to block access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書, also known as RedNote in English) for a year, citing security risks and more than 1,700 alleged fraud cases on the platform since last year. The order took effect immediately, abruptly affecting more than 3 million users in Taiwan, and sparked discussions among politicians, online influencers and the public. The platform is often described as China’s version of Instagram or Pinterest, combining visual social media with e-commerce, and its users are predominantly young urban women,
Most Hong Kongers ignored the elections for its Legislative Council (LegCo) in 2021 and did so once again on Sunday. Unlike in 2021, moderate democrats who pledged their allegiance to Beijing were absent from the ballots this year. The electoral system overhaul is apparent revenge by Beijing for the democracy movement. On Sunday, the Hong Kong “patriots-only” election of the LegCo had a record-low turnout in the five geographical constituencies, with only 1.3 million people casting their ballots on the only seats that most Hong Kongers are eligible to vote for. Blank and invalid votes were up 50 percent from the previous
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi lit a fuse the moment she declared that trouble for Taiwan means trouble for Japan. Beijing roared, Tokyo braced and like a plot twist nobody expected that early in the story, US President Donald Trump suddenly picked up the phone to talk to her. For a man who normally prefers to keep Asia guessing, the move itself was striking. What followed was even more intriguing. No one outside the room knows the exact phrasing, the tone or the diplomatic eyebrow raises exchanged, but the broad takeaway circulating among people familiar with the call was this: Trump did
RSS