The US House of Representatives Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation aimed at expanding high-level military cooperation and contacts between the US and Taiwan, especially in missile defense, anti-submarine warfare and command-and-control capabilities. A parallel measure has been introduced in the Senate.
Both measures would lift the cap on the travel to Taiwan of the most senior US military officers and civilian personnel, and promote "educational exchanges" between the top officials of Taiwan and the US. The purpose, according to the two measures, would be "to improve the defenses of Taiwan against attack by the People's Liberation Army."
The three areas singled out for special attention are "fields identified by the Department of Defense where Taiwan is in most need of assistance," Ryun said in a press release.
The measure will "help make Taiwan more defensively self-sufficient, while at the same time improving its ability to fight alongside the United States in a crisis if necessary," he said.
Both the House and Senate measures are amendments to broader bills authorizing Defense Department programs for fiscal year 2005. The House approved the amendment, proposed by Representative Jim Ryun, Republican, by a 290 to 132 vote, and then approved the amended US$422 billion authorization bill, 391 to 34.
In the Senate, Senator Sam Brownback -- also a Republican -- the chairman of the East Asian and Pacific subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee, proposed the measure Wednesday. But a Brownback aide could not say when and how the proposal will come up in that chamber.
The Pentagon is a strong supporter of the bills, according to congressional staffers. The bills stem from discussions between the Pentagon and the House Armed Services Committee, of which Ryun is a senior member.
"This is something the office of the secretary of defense has supported," Jim Richardson, Ryun's legislative director, told the Taipei Times. "We did this because we thought it was a good idea, and we wanted to help the Defense Department to be able to institute these programs."
The legislation is intended to circumvent efforts by the State Department and White House to stymie an earlier congressional attempt to expand high-level military-to-military cooperation between Washington and Taipei.
The Defense Department, an advocate of closer ties, wrote the report, the State Department and the National Security Council of the White House have prevented the report from being transmitted to Congress, sources say.
The report is said to call for a wide-ranging scope of interactions between the US and Taiwan defense elites in view of what many in Washington fear has been a dangerous decline in recent years in Taiwan's military preparedness to fend off an attack from China.
The House and Senate bills would allow exchanges that focus on threat analysis, military doctrine, force planning, logistical support, intelligence collection and analysis, operational tactics, techniques and procedures, and civil-military relations, including legislative relations.
The activities would include "an exercise, an event and an opportunity for observation." Such activities could take place in either Taiwan or the US.
Currently, only military officers at the level of colonel or below, or defense officials below deputy assistant secretary are allowed to go to Taiwan and deal with Taiwanese officials. The bills would eliminate that ceiling, theoretically opening the way to possible visits to Taiwan by the secretary of defense or the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff and their Taiwanese counterparts.
Also See Story:
Editorial: Meeting threats with candy floss
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
RSS