US Senator Dan Sullivan has called for more military support and harsher economic sanctions to deter China from invading Taiwan.
The Republican laid out a “three-layered approach” for the US to meet the “critical immediate needs to bolster deterrence in the Taiwan Strait” in an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
The first layer is providing Taiwan with the necessary weapons to defend itself, he said.
Photo: AP
Sullivan said that he has, for the past three months, been urging his colleagues to “significantly strengthen” the weapons systems provided to Taiwan, so that the nation can prevail in a cross-strait conflict.
In October, US President Joe Biden’s administration requested emergency supplemental funding to provide security assistance to the US’ allies and partners, including Taiwan.
However, Sullivan said that the US$5.4 billion, out of the nearly US$106 billion budget requested to deal with Beijing, was far from enough, as the Chinese Communist Party is undertaking “the largest peacetime military buildup in history with a clear goal of conquering Taiwan.”
Criticizing the budget, he said it was set because the US government did not want to “spoil the mood music” when Biden met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco last month.
The second layer of deterrence is the US’ capability to defend Taiwan if the US president decided to do so, Sullivan said.
The US’ military power “has proven decisive in keeping the Taiwanese people free over the decades,” he said, adding that it has been “eroded” by Biden’s budgets.
The third layer is ensuring China is aware that launching a military attack against Taiwan would be met with “debilitating economic, financial and energy sanctions,” which could be “the most powerful” deterrence measure, he said.
Together with US Representative Mike Gallagher, Sullivan introduced the Sanctions Targeting Aggressors of Neighboring Democracies with Taiwan Act in March, which would impose comprehensive economic and financial sanctions on China if the People’s Liberation Army or its proxies launched an invasion of Taiwan.
The bill failed to advance in US Senate or US House of Representatives.
Sullivan said a lesson from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is that “sanctions have the best chance of deterring conflict when they are ready to go before the conflict begins.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS