It is unlikely that the proposed US Taiwan policy act would clear the US Congress this term, a senior Taiwanese official with knowledge of the issue said on Wednesday.
The bill was approved by a US Senate committee last week.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Taiwanese authorities “had known the proposed bill would not clear the current Congress before it was introduced to the Senate” in June.
The bill, which contains a pledge to provide Taiwan with up to US$6.5 billion in arms purchases, on Thursday last week passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a 17-5 vote and was sent to the US Senate for consideration.
However, some of the bill’s original proposals — including renaming Taiwan’s de facto embassy in the US, requiring Senate approval for the appointment of envoys to Taipei and designating Taiwan as a major non-NATO ally — were either removed or made nonbinding.
The official said it would be “highly difficult” for the bill to clear the Senate and the US House of Representatives before the congressional term ends on Jan. 3 next year.
The bill would also still need to be signed into law by US President Joe Biden.
Nevertheless, one of the bill’s sponsors, US Senator Robert Menendez, who also chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had hoped to “demonstrate his support for Taiwan” by sponsoring the bill, the official said.
Taipei and Menendez started discussing the bill in April, when the senator and the bill’s other sponsor, US Senator Lindsey Graham, who is a ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, visited Taiwan.
Commenting on the bill at an event in Washington last week, US Representative Brad Sherman also said it was unlikely that the bill would clear the current Congress.
However, some of the bill’s provisions could be included in the proposed US National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2023, which authorizes funding levels and provides key policy guidance for the US military, Sherman said.
The Taiwanese official held similar views, saying that Taipei hopes that provisions of the Taiwan policy act pertaining to national security would be included in the NDAA.
The source declined to elaborate, saying only that “we are still in the process of negotiating with their Congress.”
The US Congress has passed the NDAA every year for the past 60 years, the official said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS