Following the passage of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act by the US House and Senate with the support of the Democratic and Republican parties, US President Joe Biden on Friday last week signed the act into law.
Among many other things, the act authorizes the provision of a US$2 billion loan to Taiwan every year for five years from next year to 2027 through the US Department of State’s Foreign Military Financing, thus implementing the resolution embodied in the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022 to defend Taiwan’s security and support its self-determination.
Some critics keen to find fault have said that the US$2 billion is being offered as a loan when it was originally going to be aid that would not need to be repaid.
However, the reality is that Taiwan’s economic strength and financial stability are such that it does not need financial aid. US$2 billion is equivalent to NT$61.5 billion, which is only 3 percent of Taiwan’s total annual budget of NT$2 trillion (US$65.1 billion), so it does not make much difference.
The US’ provision of this loan is an expression of its strong support for Taiwan and its determination to jointly resist the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Through the US Congress’ bicameral and bipartisan support for using the national defense budget to resist the CCP and support Taiwan, the US is also showing its Japanese, Indian and Australian allies where it stands, encouraging them to make greater efforts to contain China.
Japan has already responded by greatly increasing its national defense budget. From next year to 2027, its five-year defense budget would reach a record-high of more than ¥40 trillion (US$303 billion). Meanwhile, Australia has also announced that it would increase its defense budget.
The move is also a part of the US’ policy of strategic clarity. In the past, the US maintained a policy of strategic ambiguity with respect to the Taiwan Strait. During then-US president Donald Trump’s tenure, the US realized that strategic ambiguity gave China too much leeway, allowing it to “rise as a great power.”
The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine shows that an appeasement would only make war more likely, so the US’ Democratic and Republican parties have realized that to prevent war, the US must clearly and firmly warn the CCP not to overstep the line.
Specifying the US$2 billion sum is a clear statement by the US that its deterrence against the CCP is not an empty threat, but a commitment by the US to help Taiwan achieve robust military preparedness. The more Taiwan’s military preparedness is upgraded and strengthened, the lower the chance that China would resort to force. The most effective means of preventing war is always by increasing one’s military readiness.
The US’ move is also meant as a warning to CCP-friendly elements in Taiwan that the wind has changed. In the past, the US used strategic ambiguity to dupe China, so it tolerated CCP-friendly people in Taiwan flirting with China.
Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) pursuit of strategic clarity made him a “troublemaker” in the eyes of the US.
However, the US has shifted to a policy of strategic clarity and no longer wants anyone in Taiwan to be friendly with the CCP. Whoever fails to grasp this change in US strategy and continues to push for relations with the CCP would become a thorn in the side of the US.
In financial terms, Taiwan can afford to repay the loan.
However, Israel receives a lot of money that does not need to be repaid. The biggest difference between Taiwan and Israel lies in their real strength. Israel’s role controlling the Middle East, and its achievements in military technology are things that Taiwan cannot match, which is why it does not receive such generous treatment as Israel.
Taiwan should reflect upon this difference and draw appropriate conclusions. Israel has a population of only 9 million people and excels in software innovation, whereas Taiwan is a major manufacturing base for semiconductors and hardware. Why does Taiwan lag so far behind in terms of military might? It is only a matter of determination.
Tommy Lin is a physician and president of the Formosa Republican Association and the Taiwan United Nations Alliance.
Translated by Julian Clegg
US aerospace company Boeing Co has in recent years been involved in numerous safety incidents, including crashes of its 737 Max airliners, which have caused widespread concern about the company’s safety record. It has recently come to light that titanium jet engine parts used by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus SE were sold with falsified documentation. The source of the titanium used in these parts has been traced back to an unknown Chinese company. It is clear that China is trying to sneak questionable titanium materials into the supply chain and use any ensuing problems as an opportunity to
It’s not every month that the US Department of State sends two deputy assistant secretary-level officials to Taiwan, together. Its rarer still that such senior State Department policy officers, once on the ground in Taipei, make a point of huddling with fellow diplomats from “like-minded” NATO, ANZUS and Japanese governments to coordinate their multilateral Taiwan policies. The State Department issued a press release on June 22 admitting that the two American “representatives” had “hosted consultations in Taipei” with their counterparts from the “Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” The consultations were blandly dubbed the “US-Taiwan Working Group on International Organizations.” The State
The Chinese Supreme People’s Court and other government agencies released new legal guidelines criminalizing “Taiwan independence diehard separatists.” While mostly symbolic — the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never had jurisdiction over Taiwan — Tamkang University Graduate Institute of China Studies associate professor Chang Wu-ueh (張五岳), an expert on cross-strait relations, said: “They aim to explain domestically how they are countering ‘Taiwan independence,’ they aim to declare internationally their claimed jurisdiction over Taiwan and they aim to deter Taiwanese.” Analysts do not know for sure why Beijing is propagating these guidelines now. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), deciphering the
Many local news media last week reported that COVID-19 is back, citing doctors’ observations and the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) statistics. The CDC said that cases would peak this month and urged people to take preventive measures. Although COVID-19 has never been eliminated, it has become more manageable, and restrictions were dropped, enabling people to return to their normal way of life due to decreasing hospitalizations and deaths. In Taiwan, mandatory reporting of confirmed cases and home isolation ended in March last year, while the mask mandate at hospitals and healthcare facilities stopped in May. However, the CDC last week said the number