WASHINGTON — 

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 350 to 80 on Thursday (December 8) to pass the National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2023, which includes a number of provisions to support Taiwan's security and defense, including providing Taiwan with up to US$10 billion in military aid over five years. Experts say that the important thing about the National Defense Authorization Act is that it is a way for Congress to make the future security relationship between the United States and Taiwan formal and sustainable.


The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have included many pro-Taiwan provisions in the coordinated US$858 billion National Defense Authorization Act, which are mainly derived from the Taiwan Policy Act previously passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Wrapped in the "Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act (TERA)" (Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act, TERA) proposed by Bob Menendez (Bob Menendez), the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, among dozens of pages related to Taiwan, the most notable is to authorize the U.S. government to provide up to 10 billion U.S. dollars in military aid to Taiwan in the next five years.


The bill still needs to pass the Senate. Both chambers must pass a bill with the same text before it can be sent to the president to sign into law. The annual National Defense Authorization Act is widely seen as an important bill that must be passed in a timely manner.


U.S. underestimates Ukraine's need for military aid


John van Oudenaren, China Project Manager of the Jamestown Foundation, said in an interview with Voice of America that, based on the experience of the United States in underestimating Ukraine’s weapons needs, providing Taiwan with five-year The $10 billion figure is "a small start".


"I think it's just a small start. We've seen from the United States and the Biden administration that they have good intentions for Ukraine and a very strong will to assist Ukraine at the beginning of the conflict, but they've greatly underestimated all needed assistance. In Taiwan, we've seen actually a lot of orders for US arms and equipment, but they've been delayed. So we're not meeting Taiwan's defense needs anymore, so anything that can speed up that I think It’s all good.”


Ou Xiaoran, who is also the editor-in-chief of the Jamestown Foundation’s publication China Briefing, believes that the most important thing about the National Defense Authorization Act is that it provides a platform for US-Taiwan security exchanges through legislation. and framework for the sustainability of the security relationship between the two parties.


"I think it will provide a platform and a framework for deepening U.S. security engagement with Taiwan and also allow it to formalize existing U.S.-China policy without undermining it. So I think it's actually a congressional action, it's important because it's built on the Taiwan Relations Act and the 'six assurances' to Taiwan and other traditions of congressional engagement with Taiwan, so I think it's sustainable for that reason, It's important to provide a way to have sustainable engagement with Taiwan, secure engagement with Taiwan, and that's through legislation."


The lack of joint military exercises between the United States and Taiwan is an obstacle


The version of the National Defense Authorization Act currently passed by the House of Representatives includes a “Sense of Congress” to encourage the United States to conduct joint military exercises with Taiwan. This "congress opinion" has no legislative binding force on the executive authority. The past National Defense Authorization Act also had similar provisions to support or encourage the US Department of Defense to invite Taiwan to participate in the "Rim of the Pacific military exercise", but Taiwan has not yet been invited by the US administration to participate in such exercises.


Ou Xiaoran believes that the lack of joint exercises is indeed an obstacle because interoperability is very important to the US and Taiwan military.


"I think the lack of interoperability between Taiwan's military and the U.S. military is an obstacle," he said. "I don't know if congressional action will actually fix that though. I think that's what this unofficial relationship is about. It's the status quo. Both sides agree that the status quo has to be maintained, and there will be some limitations in terms of how you can engage with federal officials and defense cooperation. But I think a lot of that is still going on through other frameworks, so I think there's an opportunity, actually, It's somewhat secretive, but I still think it's a natural obstacle."


U.S. must speed up arms supply to Taiwan


Richard Fisher, a senior fellow at the Center for International Assessment and Strategy, also emphasized the urgency of assisting Taiwan in improving its defense capabilities in an interview with Voice of America, because the possibility of China's invasion of Taiwan is very real. He believes that the United States and Taiwan may only have six to 18 months to change the balance of power enough to deter Xi Jinping from making a decision to invade Taiwan. Therefore, the United States must strengthen its own military capabilities as soon as possible and speed up the provision of necessary weapons to Taiwan.


"(China) has a real chance to invade Taiwan in 2023 and 2024, which is why the United States must speed up the delivery of weapons, press Taiwan to carry out necessary reforms, such as establishing a militia, expanding the reserve force; the United States must also deploy theaters in Asia nuclear arsenal in order to begin the process of decisively deterring Chinese aggression."


Fisher also believes that the Biden administration should regard arming Taiwan as a higher priority and provide Taiwan with more equipment to help Taiwan survive in the event of a blockade.


“747 cargo planes should be landing in Taiwan every day to unload supplies and ammunition to help Taiwan survive the blockade and deter invasion. But it didn’t happen. The way to keep American young people from getting involved in wars in Asia is to make China unable to start wars,” He says.


Taiwan thanks, but China opposes


After the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives released the negotiated version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 on Tuesday night, the Taiwan government expressed its gratitude to the U.S. Congress for its support for Taiwan.


Taiwanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ou Jiangan said at a regular press conference on Thursday, "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its sincere gratitude to the US Congress for its continued strong support for Taiwan's security." Since the bill is still in the voting process, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to pay attention to the follow-up progress. It will continue to communicate closely with the U.S. Congress and the executive branch. Taiwan expects this bill to be successfully enacted before the expiration of the current U.S. Congress. Te also said that Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also continue to work hard to comprehensively deepen the friendly partnership between Taiwan and the United States to ensure the security of the Taiwan Strait and the freedom, openness, peace, and stability of the Indo-Pacific region.


The National Defense Authorization Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives included US$10 billion in funds to assist Taiwan in building up its armaments. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning expressed firm opposition at a regular press conference on Friday and demanded that the U.S. side "delete" this China-related content.


Mao Ning said, "Taiwan is China's Taiwan." The Taiwan issue is purely China's internal affair. The U.S. side should abide by the one-China principle and the three Sino-U.S. 'Use Taiwan to contain China and stop US-Taiwan military ties" to avoid further damage to Sino-US relations. She also said that China will take all necessary measures to firmly defend its sovereignty and security interests.