The US Senate Committee on Armed Services on Thursday released an executive summary of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025 with a provision asking the Pentagon to establish a “regional contingency stockpile” of arms for Taiwan.
The committee voted 22-3 to advance the US$923.3 billion bill to the Senate floor, hours before a competing version passed the US House of Representatives.
The US Department of Defense would be required to ensure Taiwan is aligned with the US National Defense Industrial Strategy to increase global defense production, secure supply chains and meet Taiwan’s defense needs, the executive summary says.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Under a section on “countering Chinese aggression,” the summary says the Pentagon must prepare a report on the implications of Beijing-Moscow military cooperation on the US’ national security and propose a transregional strategy to reveal the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) “malign activities.”
Each “geographic combatant command” of the US armed forces would be required “to designate a lead component to coordinate transregional efforts to counter malign activities by the PLA,” it says.
The bill would also create an “expanded competition office” to counter “gray zone” economic activities by adversaries, and authorize an additional US$100 million budget for the US Indo-Pacific Command Joint Training Team, the summary says.
The US House of Representatives at noon on Friday passed its version of the NDAA, requiring the Pentagon to report on efforts to bolster defense industry cooperation with Taiwan.
The US House bill would also require the US Federal Communications Commission to ban uncrewed aerial vehicles produced by China’s Shenzhen DJI Science and Technology Co (大疆創新) from US skies.
The House and Senate are pushing to ban drones from China-based companies DJI and Autel Robotics Co (道通智能航空技) after reports linked the two companies to the Chinese Communist Party and the PLA, the Hill newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The US Department of Defense, which is prevented by legislation from buying Chinese drones, previously expressed concerns over the companies, it said.
The Senate committee and the House would next negotiate and pass a final version of the NDAA, which would be sent to the president to be signed into law.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
RSS