While Chinese threats in response to the California Democrat’s as-yet unconfirmed plans to visit (The Daily 202 thinks she’s going) have seized headlines around the world, what happens in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday will echo in Taipei and Beijing.
It could also give the White House significant diplomatic heartburn. The administration has been trying to ease tensions with the mainland, which considers Taiwan to be part of its territory, to be taken by force if necessary — notably if Taipei moves to formally declare independence.
The United States does not have an embassy in Taiwan, but sells arms to bolster Taiwan’s self-defense and nurtures a strong trade relationship. On three occasions since August 2021, President Biden has said the United States would defend Taiwan militarily if China were to attack. White House officials have walked back or watered down those comments.
After Biden spoke for 2 ½ hours on Friday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, state-run media in Beijing summarized the conversation in a way that made it sound like Xi had scolded the United States on the subject of Taiwan, at one point warning Washington not to “play with fire.”
That’s the backdrop for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee markup of the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022, crafted by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the panel’s chairman, and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs.
The legislation also has the support of the ranking Republican on foreign relations, Sen. James E. Risch of Idaho, who is expected to push to include some proposals he made in late 2021. Support for Taiwan and defiance of China is one of the few heartily bipartisan issues in Congress today.
The bill includes $6.5 billion in foreign military financing for Taiwan over the next four years. That State Department-administered program could provide Taiwan with loans or grants to purchase arms or conduct training or military exercises.
The Taiwan Policy Act would also designate Taiwan a “major non-NATO ally,” which facilitates deliveries of U.S. military hardware, but doesn’t come with a mutual defense commitment. Aides of both parties say that could help resolve the considerable backlog of deliveries to Taiwan.
Many of the bill’s provisions straddle the line between symbolic and substantive, but virtually all are bound to raise hackles in Beijing.
For instance, there’s the matter of raising the profile of each side’s representative. Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Washington, would go from being called the “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office” to the “Taiwan Representative Office.”
And the director of the American Institute in Taipei would require Senate confirmation, as is the case for ambassadors, and receive the title “representative.”
- Edit the Taiwan Relations Act, one of the core texts defining the relationship since 1979, so that U.S. policy isn’t just “to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character” but also “arms conducive to deterring acts of aggression by the People’s Liberation Army;”
- Require the president to impose sanctions on senior Chinese officials — including its president — if they escalate tensions with the effect of “undermining, overthrowing, or dismantling governing institutions in Taiwan,” including by invading; and
- Direct the…
Read More: Senate looks to update and deepen U.S.-Taiwan relationship
