Supporters of Taiwan in the US House of Representatives were shocked after heavy lobbying from defense contractors and the US Chamber of Commerce defeated legislation on Thursday that would have penalized European nations and firms that sell weapons to China that could be used to attack Taiwan.
But the main sponsor of the bill, International Relations Committee chairman Henry Hyde, was reported to be planning to salvage the bill next week by attaching it to a State Department funding measure, where it might have a better chance of passage.
If it does not pass, Taiwan's supporters fear that this will embolden the European Community to lift its arms embargo on China next year, because of the assumption that Washington would not retaliate.
Opposition by the Bush administration, along with Europe's revulsion toward Beijing over its "Anti-Secession" Law targeting pro-independence Taiwanese, were credited with the EU's decision this year to drop earlier plans to lift the embargo.
The US House measure was all set to be approved by a wide margin, when the business community launched a last-minute lobbying blitz over concerns that they would lose business if the measure passed.
Aiding these efforts, according to congressional sources, were a couple of tactical blunders by the sponsors of the bill, which allowed some 100 members who earlier supported it to change their votes under the weight of the lobbying.
The vote on the measure was 215-203 in favor. But it was brought to the House floor as a "suspension" bill, which allowed it to get to a vote on a fast track in exchange for a requirement that it had to receive a two-thirds majority to be passed.
Such bills are usually uncontroversial and pass easily. While the bill could have been approved by unanimous consent on Wednesday, when it came up for floor debate, Hyde called instead for a voice vote, confident this would enhance the bill's credibility.
The vote, which had been delayed until Thursday, was to take five minutes, but instead it was kept open for another 20 minutes, giving the business lobby a wedge to convince more than 100 members to switch their votes.
Earlier, as many as 330 House members were expected to vote yes. Republican Representative Donald Manzullo, the chairman of the House Small Business Committee, was seen as crucial to the bill's defeat.
As the vote was proceeding, Manzullo handed out a flier on the floor urging his colleagues to reject the bill, and circulated a letter of opposition from a dozen powerful business groups.
In the letter, the groups argued that the bill would be counterproductive, would add to the costs of obtaining export licenses and would disrupt the defense industry's business relations with their customers.
Manzullo is also the head of the US-China interparliamentary exchange, which fosters good relations between the House and China's National People's Congress.
The US commitment to help Taiwan against a Chinese invasion was clearly on the mind of the legislators as the House considered the bill.
"Tens of thousands of American troops are currently deployed in Asia," said Democratic Representative Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, in a speech on the House floor on Wednesday in support of the bill.
"And American forces one day could be sent to the Taiwan Strait to help defend the island nation from invasion by mainland [sic] China," he said.
The bill itself notes that even "non-lethal" European arms sales to China "are far from benign, and enhance the prospects for the threat or use of force in resolving the status of Taiwan, a troubling prospect made more ominous" by China's recent enactment of the Anti-Secession Law.
The legislation would have required the US president to compile annual reports to Congress on European companies that continue to supply arms to China and European nations whose policies condone such sales.
If the countries and their firms were to appear on two annual lists, the president would have been required to impose penalties.
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