A new act passed Thursday (May 8) by the Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. Senate requires the Department of Defense and other departments to formulate plans to facilitate American support for Taiwan in case of an invasion or other major aggression against the island by Communist China.
The Taiwan Protection and National Resilience Act defines such aggression as any move by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that “infringes upon the territorial sovereignty of Taiwan by preventing access to international waterways, airspace, or telecommunications networks.”
“It’s in our national and regional security interests to firmly support Taiwan, a valued ally of the United States,” Marco Rubio (R-FL) stated in a June 8 press release.
Rubio, who tabled the legislation together with Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), added that Congress should “continue to closely monitor the CCP’s hostile acts against our democratic ally and remain firm in our strategy to deter any aggression against Taiwan.”
Though passed by the Committee, the Act must be formulated into a version accepted by both the Senate at large and the House of Representatives before going to the White House.
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Taiwan is formally governed as the Republic of China (ROC), which retreated to the island after losing mainland China to the CCP in 1949.
Beijing claims Taiwan and its surrounding minor islands as part of PRC sovereign territory, despite having never governed these.
