US lawmakers are urging the US Congress to pass a White House budget request to provide security assistance to allies and partners, including Taiwan.
US President Joe Biden’s administration last month requested emergency supplemental funding for “key national security priorities,” the White House said.
The more than US$105 billion package includes US$61.4 billion in aid for Ukraine, US$14.3 billion for Israel and US$7.4 billion for the Indo-Pacific region, which includes Taiwan, CNN reported.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
US Representative Mike Gallagher, the chair of the US House of Representatives Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, told CBS’ Face The Nation that he thinks the US Congress would pass the budget.
“We have no choice. We have to pass this,” US Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said on the show.
The two are leading the committee “to act before it’s too late,” considering the growing threat to Taiwan, Gallagher said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) reportedly told Biden in their meeting in San Francisco on the sidelines of the APEC summit last week that peace and stability in the region are less important than solving the Taiwan question, he said.
“No amount of relentless diplomacy will make a difference if we don’t fix the fundamental problem,” which is the imbalance of hard power across the Taiwan Strait and throughout the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
The support offered to Taiwan, Ukraine, Israel and other priorities “are all inextricably linked,” Krishnamoorthi said, adding that “we have to make sure that we send the right message to Xi Jinping.”
A majority of the US public is concerned that a war might break out within 10 years and want their government to prevent it, he said.
The best way to achieve such a goal is “to make sure that we deter aggression by equipping Taiwan with what it needs to prevent aggression” as well as maintaining the highest-level communication channels between Washington and Beijing, he said.
Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) last week told CNN that China’s biggest military buildup in a century “may be just the beginning” and “can only be deterred by massive military power.”
Taiwan would become “Chinese Hawaii” if occupied by Beijing, which could send submarines from eastern Taiwan to target the US’ west coast, he said.
Former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen told ABC’s This Week that the meeting between Biden and Xi made “no progress” on the Taiwan issue, which “is the most significant and most dangerous, near term and long term.”
Xi has been “very aggressive” in his assertion that China would eventually annex Taiwan, but the two leaders failed to agree that such a goal would not be achieved by force, he said.
Meanwhile, regarding Xi’s denial that China has a plan to take military action against Taiwan in 2027 or 2035, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) yesterday said at the legislature in Taipei that the armed forces always prepare for war, while the ministry strives to prevent it.
Regarding Xi urging Biden to stop arming Taiwan, Chiu said that the US selling weapons to Taiwan is a normal interaction rather than an act to arm the nation.
Sending military personnel to the US to inspect and learn from their counterparts is also part of normal exchanges between Taiwan and the US, he said.
Additional reporting by Chen Yu-fu
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS