The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked the US Senate for passing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2020, which requires the Pentagon to report Chinese interference in Taiwan’s elections and create plans to boost Taiwan-US cybersecurity cooperation.
After the Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives approved the bill 377-48 on Wednesday last week, the Republican-led Senate on Tuesday passed it 86-8.
The legislation has been forwarded to the White House, with US President Donald Trump expected to sign it into law.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
Article 5513 of the act requires the US director of national intelligence to deliver a report on Beijing’s interference or disruption campaigns targeting Taiwan’s elections and US responses to such campaigns within 45 days of an election in Taiwan.
The act also requires the US secretary of defense to submit a report on establishing a high-level and interagency US-Taiwan group to tackle new cybersecurity issues within 180 days of the act taking effect.
The Pentagon and the US Department of State would also be required to present a report within 180 days of the act’s implementation on the US’ Taiwan Relations Act; whether the Chinese government threatens Taiwan’s security, social order and economy; whether Beijing is changing the cross-strait military balance; and Taiwan’s expectation to determine its future via peaceful means.
Taiwan-US cooperation on cybersecurity is listed for the first time in the act, which also supports Taiwan’s resolve to bolster its self-defense capabilities and an increase in bilateral military exchanges, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement yesterday.
The ministry thanked the US for again demonstrating its firm support for Taiwan-US military cooperation, and for its concern about Taiwan’s democracy and freedom, she said.
The legislation provides a total of US$738 billion in base discretionary funding, as well as US$5.3 billion in emergency disaster relief funding, US Senator James Inhofe, chairman of the US Senate Committee on Armed Services, said in a news release on Tuesday.
It includes landmark reforms for privatized military housing, establishes a US Space Force and ensures that US troops receive their largest pay raise (3.1 percent) in a decade, he said.
“It also sends a strong message to our allies and our adversaries, especially Russia and China. America is the leader of the free world, in large part because we are able to defend our values. This NDAA makes sure we keep it that way,” Inhofe said on Facebook.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
COMPLIANCE: The SEF has helped more than 3,900 Chinese verify documents, indicating that most of those affected are willing to cooperate, the MAC said More than 3,100 spouses from China have submitted proof of renunciation of their Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The National Immigration Agency has since April issued notices to spouses to submit proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration on or before June 30 or their Taiwanese household registration would be revoked. People having difficulties obtaining such a document can request an extension of the deadline or submit a written affidavit in lieu of it. The council said it would hold a briefing at 2:30pm on Friday at the immigration agency’s Taichung office in cooperation with the
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
RSS