A US Senate committee on Wednesday approved the Taiwan policy act of 2022, which would significantly enhance US military support for Taiwan, including provisions for billions of dollars in additional security assistance, as China increases military pressure on the nation.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee backed the bill 17 to 5.
Some of the bill’s original proposals — including renaming the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Washington, requiring senate approval for Washington’s envoy to Taipei and designating the country a “major non-NATO ally” — were either removed or made nonbinding in the wake of misgivings from the White House.
Photo: AFP
The updated bill still includes provisions authorizing up to US$6.5 billion in grants from next year to 2027 for Taipei to purchase US arms.
Sponsors said the bill would be the most comprehensive restructuring of US policy toward Taiwan since the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 — the bedrock of US engagement with Taiwan since Washington opened up relations with Beijing that year.
US lawmakers moved ahead on the act amid heightened worries for Taiwan after Russia invaded Ukraine, and following a visit to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which prompted China to stage major military exercises seen as a trial run for an invasion.
US Senator Bob Menendez, who leads the committee and is a member of US President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party, said that the US “does not seek war or heightened tensions with Beijing,” but needs to be “clear-eyed.”
“We are carefully and strategically lowering the existential threats facing Taiwan by raising the cost of taking the island by force so that it becomes too high a risk and unachievable,” Menendez said.
US Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the committee, said it is “imperative we take action now to bolster Taiwan’s self-defense before it’s too late.”
Asked about modifications in the revised bill, Menendez said the changes were “minor” compared to provisions on defense assistance, which the senator described as “the core of the bill” alongside clauses relating to international forums and economic engagement.
Although stopping short of designating Taiwan as a “major non-NATO ally” — which would have provided it the same status as Australia, Israel, Japan and South Korea with regards to expediting arms sales — the revised bill states that the country “shall be treated as though it were designated a major non-NATO ally for the purposes of the transfer or possible transfer of defense.”
The committee’s approval paved the way for a vote in the full US Senate, but there has been no word on when that might take place. To become law, it must also pass the US House of Representatives and be signed by the president, or win enough support to override a veto.
The Taiwan bill is likely to be folded into a larger piece of legislation expected to pass late this year, such as the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual bill setting policy for the US Department of Defense.
China said yesterday that the bill “sent serious wrong signals to Taiwan independence and separatist forces.”
If the bill continues to move forward, “it will greatly shake the political foundation of China-US relations, and will have extremely serious consequences for ... peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning (毛寧) said at a briefing in Beijing.
SEE OFFICE PAGE 3
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
RSS