issuing time: 09/15/2022 – 14:15Changeover time: 09/15/2022 – 14:19
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The U.S. Congressional Foreign Relations Committee voted Wednesday (Sept. 14) to pass the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022, which provides the first direct military assistance to Taiwan. The France-Presse news agency commented that US lawmakers have obviously gone beyond the White House in helping Taiwan. A visit by US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August sparked protests over a large-scale military exercise in Beijing, and the new bill has once again angered Beijing.
The 2022 Taiwan Policy Act bill, approved by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, provides nearly $ 4.5 billion in direct military assistance to Taiwan over the next four years. He also called on the US president to impose sanctions on major Chinese financial institutions in response to any “escalation of hostilities towards Taiwan”. The bill would also give the island the status of an “important non-NATO ally”.
The proponent of the bill is the chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democrat Bob Menendez, who stressed that this is the most important global reform of US policy towards Taiwan since 1979.
The office of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen expressed “sincere thanks” to the United States, saying that the United States “has once again demonstrated its bipartisan friendship and support for Taiwan.”
The AFP report analyzed that the commission’s vote is only the first step of a long legislative process: the bill must now be approved in full Senate, then in the House of Representatives and finally passed by President Joe Biden. But it certainly marks at least a major de-escalation between the United States and Taiwan at a time when relations between Beijing and Washington are at their lowest level in decades.
So the White House is handling this very carefully. White House spokesperson Karin Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that she will continue to communicate directly with Congress on the text. She went on to say that the Biden administration “will continue to deepen its partnership with Taiwan with strong diplomatic, economic and military support”.
On Thursday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also responded to the “Taiwan Policy Act of 2022”, arguing that the law seriously violated the US commitment to China on the Taiwan issue, violated the one China principle and the three Joint Sino-US communiques, interfered in China’s internal affairs and violated international law and fundamental norms of international relations send a grossly wrong signal to the separatist forces of “Taiwan independence”. China strongly opposes this and has presented solemn representations to the United States. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman also asked the United States to stop playing the “Taiwan card” to “use Taiwan to control China” and stop promoting the related bill. “China will take all necessary measures to resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, depending on the progress and the final outcome of the case,” he said.
The vote in the U.S. Congress comes just days after Washington sold $ 1.1 billion worth of weapons to Taipei, and more than a month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan ignited the fury. of Beijing. China therefore launched the largest military exercise in its history around Taiwan.
Pelosi is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the island in decades and, prior to his visit to Taiwan, White House officials told Beijing that, under the separation of powers system, the U.S. Congress it is an independent branch of government and Pelosi is number three in politics, but it does not represent government policy.
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