US Congress forces Joe Biden towards risky face-off with China over Taiwan

Biden’s next battle with Congress over China could center on the Taiwan Policy Act. The bill’s main sponsors, Senator Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who heads the Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, are both longtime China critics who made trips to Taiwan in April.

If passed, the legislation would provide Taiwan with US$4.5 billion (S$6.2 billion) of defense assistance over four years and set up a sanctions regime to penalise Beijing for any hostile action against Taiwan.

It would also require the US to regularly assess the risk of a Chinese invasion and help train Taiwanese forces for such an attack.

National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement that the bill contradicted the US government’s longstanding “One China” policy, which deems the question of sovereignty over Taiwan as undetermined. Washington for decades has adopted “strategic ambiguity” over whether US forces would defend Taiwan against China.

“You have to wonder how much of the US’s Taiwan policy is actually left if they designate Taiwan as a major ally,” said David Smith, associate professor at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre. “This does suggest that there will be a direct US response if there were ever a Chinese invasion.”

Several Democrat senators have echoed the White House concerns about the legislation and likely will try to rewrite significant provisions as it goes through the committee and amendment process before getting a vote on passage.

Menendez intends to bring the Taiwan legislation up for a vote before the committee after lawmakers return from an August recess, his spokesman Juan Pachon said, noting that it was subject to changes by the committee.

China, where the Communist Party holds unchallenged control over all branches of government, has long dismissed diverging messages between the different branches of democratic governments.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing in Beijing last week that Congress should “strictly abide by” American foreign policy.

“When the House speaker, being the third-highest-ranking figure in the US government, flies on US military aircraft and makes a provocative visit to the Taiwan region, it is by no means an unofficial action,” Hua said.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said last month that he would also lead a delegation to Taipei, if Republicans win control of the chamber next year and he becomes speaker.

Successive US administrations have argued that American visits are consistent with the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which calls for “extensive, close and friendly commercial, cultural and other relations” between Washington and Taipei.

But Beijing has cooled to them in recent years, as it becomes more convinced that Washington is trying to contain its rise.

Other nations with similar One China policies are sending their own delegations to Taiwan. A group of British MPs plan to visit this year, while Lithuania’s speaker said she intends to discuss a joint visit to Taiwan with other European Union legislative leaders.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES