Four US senators have introduced bipartisan legislation that would require the US Department of the Treasury to terminate the US-China Tax Treaty within 30 days after a presidential determination that China has initiated an armed attack against Taiwan.
The senators are Republicans John Cornyn and Bill Cassidy, and Democrats Chris Coons and Catherine Cortez Masto.
“The United States must make it crystal clear the Chinese Communist Party will face dire consequences if it moves to invade Taiwan,” Cornyn said on Tuesday.
Photo: Screengrab from YouTube
“The security of our partners in the Indo-Pacific is critical to American trade objectives, regional stability and fostering democracy around the world,” Coons said. “That’s why I am proud to cosponsor this bipartisan legislation to signal that potential aggression from the Chinese against Taiwan would be seriously detrimental to our economic relationship and incur immediate, severe consequences.”
Penalizing China for attacking US allies is “common sense,” Cassidy said.
“This legislation will help deter aggression in the region by making it clear that the US will not give favorable tax treatment to countries that make war on their neighbors,” Cortez said.
According to Article 28 of the US-China Tax Treaty, either side can terminate the treaty provided they inform the other of the decision six months in advance.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
RSS