US Senator Josh Hawley on Tuesday proposed legislation that he said would “strengthen Taiwan’s defenses against a Chinese invasion” through training, equipment and other means of support provided by the US.
Taiwan is facing growing intimidation from Beijing and the threat of a Chinese invasion is “expected to reach especially dangerous levels by the latter half of the 2020s,” the proposed “arm Taiwan act of 2021” says.
Taiwan should speed up its deployment of cost-effective and resilient asymmetric defense capabilities to defend itself effectively, the bill says.
Photo: AFP
It stipulates that the US secretary of defense form a “Taiwan Security Assistance Initiative” to help Taiwan achieve this goal.
Under the bill, the US would allocate US$3 billion annually for such an initiative from 2023 through 2027 to provide assistance to the Taiwanese government, such as equipment, training and other support.
Such assistance would be based on Taiwan demonstrating its own commitment to and progress in building a credible asymmetric defense that matches US efforts, it says.
The proposed bill’s annual budget cannot be allocated unless Taiwan invests an equivalent amount in asymmetric defense capabilities during the same period, it says, specifying that Taiwan should commit to spend at least 3 percent of GDP on defense from 2023 to 2027.
Taiwan currently spends about 2.36 percent of GDP on defense, up from 1.84 percent in 2018 and 2.16 percent in 2019, government figures show.
The bill also urges the US government to encourage its allies and partners to “sell, lease or otherwise provide appropriate asymmetric defense capabilities to Taiwan.”
“The Arm Taiwan Act will ensure Taiwan has the asymmetric defenses it needs to deter a Chinese invasion — so long as Taiwan is prepared to make the difficult choices required to defend itself in the hard years ahead,” Hawley said in a statement.
“If China’s recent actions have shown the world anything, it’s that Beijing will stop at nothing in its quest to dominate the Indo-Pacific and then the world,” he said.
“We should do everything in our power to help Taiwan urgently strengthen its defenses,” Hawley wrote.
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
RSS