A bill, known as the “Defund China’s Allies Act,” has been introduced in the US House of Representatives, seeking to “prohibit the availability of foreign assistance to certain countries that do not recognize the sovereignty of Taiwan.”
The bill was introduced by Republican representatives Andy Ogles, Tom Tiffany, Lauren Boebert, Josh Brecheen, Mary Miller and Barry Moore.
The 21 countries specified in the bill are mostly in Latin America and have no relationship with Taiwan. They include eight countries that have severed ties with Taiwan over the past few years: Costa Rica, Panama, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Nicaragua and Honduras.
Photo: Reuters
Data on US foreign assistance showed that Washington provided nearly US$800 million in fiscal 2021 to advance ties with the 21 countries listed in the bill.
The bill says that the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) global political influence campaign has contributed to numerous countries in Central America and the Caribbean switching political allegiance from Taipei to Beijing in the past few years.
“Given the proximity of these countries to the United States, these switches in political allegiances necessarily represent a more tangible threat to United States national security interests and must be confronted,” it says, adding that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “ongoing efforts to delegitimize Taiwan, if not checked, increases the risk of armed conflict by threatening to completely isolate Taiwan from any political support.”
It urges Washington to restrict foreign assistance to countries, “particularly those in the Western Hemisphere, who choose to offer full political support to the People’s Republic of China.”
It says that US efforts to condemn the 21 countries’ shift in allegiance to the PRC are undermined by “an incomprehensible adherence to the so-called ‘one China’ policy, on terms dictated by the Chinese Communist Party.”
The CCP has repeatedly used violence or the threat of violence to coerce Taiwan, which is a clear contradiction of the Taiwan Relations Act, as it reads “the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means,” the bill says.
The bill urges the US government to support full diplomatic ties with Taiwan and support Taiwan’s participation in international society, to combat the CCP’s efforts to delegitimize Taiwan.
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