After the Chinese team’s performance Two-day military exercise In an effort to punish Taiwan, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas stood with Taiwan’s newly elected President Lai Ching-te on Monday to make the pledge.
“The United States must maintain the ability to resist any use of force or coercion that threatens the security of the people of Taiwan,” said McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. “That is our position and that is what we will continue to say.”
Republican McCaul, who traveled to Taipei this week with a bipartisan delegation of other U.S. lawmakers, said the move was intended to show that the U.S. government was in solidarity with Lai and Taiwan.
The visit, which will last a week, comes at a tense time: just days after Jimmy Lai was sworn in as president, sworn in during an inaugural address In order to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty, China responded by surrounding the island with naval vessels and military aircraft. Before the members of Congress arrived in Taiwan, the Chinese government had publicly warned them to “seriously abide by the one-China policy” and “not to arrange for any members of Congress to visit Taiwan.”
Just days ago, China “conducted a two-day military exercise in the Taiwan Strait to express its dissatisfaction with President Lai,” Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung told McCaul at a news conference on Monday.
Mr Lin added: “It can be said that this is a strong performance at this critical moment.”
Despite the reluctance of many Republicans in Congress to continue providing U.S. military aid to Ukraine, support for Taiwan remains a bipartisan effort. Some conservatives believe the United States should withdraw investment in Ukraine and instead strengthen deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region. In April, the House of Representatives Voted to approve $8 billion Taiwan won by an overwhelming margin of 385 to 34.
“While there are disputes on other battlefields,” McCaul said, “I can tell you that on the Taiwan issue, there is no division or disagreement in Congress.”
But deeper challenges remain. While there are few political obstacles to approving a new round of aid to Taiwan, the backlog of U.S. orders for weapons and military equipment to be delivered to Taiwan has grown to nearly $20 billion. Some weapon systems that Washington approved for Taiwan in 2020 have yet to be delivered.
By far the largest portion of undelivered inventory is orders Trump administration approves Eric Gomez, a researcher at the Cato Institute in Washington, and another researcher compiled a report saying that the United States will order 66 F-16 fighter jets in 2019, accounting for more than 40% of the total orders. Ongoing estimates of delaysOther equipment Taiwan is waiting for includes the Harpoon coastal defense system, the HIMARS mobile rocket launcher and the Abrams tank.
Gomez said the additional $8 billion in military support for Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region approved by the U.S. Congress would not have much impact on addressing the backlog. The money includes $1.9 billion for the Pentagon to release weapons from U.S. inventories to Taiwan, which would then be used to replenish U.S. inventories. But Gomez said the U.S. “does not have enough inventory to ship” those weapons.
Taiwan’s supporters have also grown concerned that Western allies, chiefly the United States, will be drawn into other intractable conflicts such as Ukraine and the Middle East, further undermining their ability to deliver weapons.
“Taiwanese people are concerned about what’s happening in Hong Kong, they’re concerned about Afghanistan, they’re concerned about Putin,” McCaul said in an interview. “They’re worried this is going to be the next disaster, and they should be worried.”
“I don’t want anybody to think that we can’t support Taiwan because of Ukraine,” he added. “The stuff that’s going to Ukraine is old stuff, it’s old NATO stuff; for Taiwan, it’s all brand new. But I just think that our defense industrial base is overloaded right now to handle so many conflicts in the world.”
In his speech at the presidential palace, Mr. Lai cited the key role the United States played in helping the Taiwanese people “resolve to defend their homeland.” He praised the “philosophy of peace through strength” of former President Ronald Reagan — a darling of conservatives, especially House Speaker Mike Johnson, who often quotes him.
“With your support, I hope Congress can continue to assist Taiwan through legislative action,” Mr. Lai said.
Mr. McCaul said the delegation’s trip was intended to show that lawmakers were committed to that goal, and he said he was relieved that he and other Republicans faced little opposition to the bill as it passed Congress. Huge aid package Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.
“You can see the impact that the vote has here,” Mr. McCaul said. “It has real-life consequences; it’s not some political game on the field. It has real consequences here, it has real consequences in Ukraine.”
The visiting delegation included Mr. McCaul and Reps. Young Kim, R-Calif., Joe Wilson, R-S.C., Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., Andy Barr, R-Ky., and Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pennsylvania.
Christopher Buckley Contributed reporting.
