A bipartisan group of 37 U.S. lawmakers have written to senior Taiwanese politicians expressing concern about parliament stalling proposed defence spending, \u200bsaying that the threat posed by China has never been greater. Taiwan President Lai \u200bChing-te last year proposed $40 billion in extra defence \u2060spending to counter China, which views the island as its own territory. But the opposition, which has a majority in \u200bparliament, has refused to \u200creview the proposal and instead advanced its own, less expensive proposals, which only fund the purchase of some of the U.S. weapons Lai wants. The U.S. letter, addressed to \u200bTaiwan parliament speaker Han Kuo-yu, the heads of the opposition parties the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party, as well as caucus whip for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said the United States and Taiwan share a \u200cstrong and enduring \u200cpartnership. “However, the threat posed \u200bby the People’s Republic of China against Taiwan has never been greater. Xi Jinping i
s focusing every element of the PRC’s national power to control Taiwan,” said the letter, released on Thursday and referring to China’s president. The U.S. must address the massive backlog in weapons deliveries \u200bto Taiwan, but Taiwan needs to step up too, the letter said. “We commend Taiwan for making important progress in strengthening its military readiness, reserve forces, and asymmetric defence capabilities,” it said. “Nevertheless, we fear that without significant increases \u200bin Taiwan’s defence spending at levels reflected in President Lai’s proposed special budget, this progress will be insufficient.” Signatories to the letter including Senators Pete Ricketts and Chris Coons, senior members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Young Kim and Ami Bera, senior members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Several U.S. lawmakers have already made \u200cpublic expressions of concern about the stalled budget. There was no immediate response t
o the letter from the KMT or TPP. Both parties say they support defence spending, but will not sign “blank cheques” and that they \u2060have a duty to fully scrutinise \u200ball budget proposals. The DPP said in a statement it agreed with the letter and hoped the recipients will read it “thoroughly”. The delay in passing the spending risks a “rupture” in the joint line of defence against China, Taiwan’s defence \u2060minister said on Wednesday, as Lai \u2060again urged parliament to approve the spending \u2060measure. The United States is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties. The Trump administration has pressed its allies to increase defence spending, something Lai and his government have enthusiastically embraced. China has never renounced \u2060the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China, but been rebuffed, \u200band says only Taiwan’s people can decide th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A bipartisan group of 37 U.S. lawmakers have written to senior Taiwanese politicians expressing concern about parliament stalling proposed defence spending, \u200bsaying that the threat posed by China has never been greater. Taiwan President Lai \u200bChing-te last year proposed $40 billion in extra defence \u2060spending to counter China, which views the island as its own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n