TAIPEI, Taiwan — The CCP’s “increased aggression” toward Taiwan is “clearly an intimidation tactic,” Rep. Young Kim, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific, told Townhall this week. Xi Jinping isn’t just interested in Taiwan, though, and America’s status as leader of the free world is not just at stake in the Taiwan Strait.
In Taiwan as part of the first U.S. congressional delegation to the Republic of China since its new president was inaugurated, Kim said the visit should “send [China’s Xi Jinping] a message that we stand by our commitment as stated in the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), we don’t want conflict in the Taiwan Strait, [and] nobody wants war.” Nobody except Xi, perhaps, who self-imposed a deadline of 2027 for his People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to be ready to attack Taiwan.
“We come here with good faith to send Xi Jinping the message that according to the TRA, we have an obligation to provide Taiwan with the defensive capability and the supplies they need to deter armed conflict on the Taiwan Strait, and we are doing that,” Kim emphasized to Townhall.
“We are trying to do everything we can to deter any potential armed conflict,” Kim continued. That includes the U.S. doing “everything we can to expedite the arms delivery that Taiwan already paid for. Our timeline to provide Taiwan what they need should not be longer than Xi Jinping’s timeline to attack Taiwan,” she reiterated.
On that front, Kim told Townhall that her 2022 Arms Exports Delivery Solutions Act has successfully reduced a “huge” multi-billion-dollar backlog in U.S. defense equipment sold to Taiwan, including aiding the fulfillment of $10 billion worth of orders in just the last six months.
Such military support — in the form of defensive systems sold to Taiwan by the U.S. and through other funding included in multiple appropriations bills via foreign military financing (FMF) and presidential drawdown authority (PDA) — is critical to Taiwan’s deterrence of CCP aggression.
