The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack.
The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says.
The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously.
Photo: AFP
“If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit assets of Beijing’s senior-most leaders, including the names of financial institutions and maintaining accounts,” Hill said during a speech to the House.
“Let these corrupt officials explain to ordinary Chinese citizens how they acquired their riches on a government salary,” Hill added, after suggesting that Beijing “has failed to deliver a social safety net and families are battered by sinking real-estate debt.”
“This bill goes beyond naming and shaming” as it would also “cut off access” to the US financial system for CCP officials and their “immediate family,” he said. “For Chinese officials whose families profit from their ill-gotten gains, they too will find the world becoming a much smaller place.”
The Arkansas representative said that the US’ formal diplomatic recognition of Beijing in 1979 was based on the premise that “the future of Taiwan would be determined by peaceful means.”
Any actions, including a blockade of Taiwan, would “threaten regional peace and security,” Hill said.
Sherman said that the bill “is designed to put the government of China on notice that the United States is closely watching its increasing threats toward Taiwan.”
“This bill does not focus on retaliating against the Chinese government per se, but rather on individuals who are in that government,” he said.
Sherman, who represents California’s 32nd district, said the measures stipulated in the act would only be triggered if the US president exercised their authority under Section 3 of the Taiwan Relations Act.
“I don’t expect that a triggering will ever occur, but it’s important to put Beijing on notice of what would happen if their threats against Taiwan raised to that level,” Sherman said.
In Taipei yesterday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) expressed gratitude to the US Congress for using a “creative and effective way” to deter Chinese military aggression toward Taiwan.
“This kind of legislation allows us to jointly deter Chinese communist expansion and to uphold peace in the Indo-Pacific region, especially cross-strait stability and security,” Lin said.
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