Washington should tone down its hawkish stance over Taiwan

A GROWING number of Republican and Democratic members of the US Congress seemed intent on overhauling American policy toward Taiwan, and in the process raising the tensions between the United States and China to new heights. Now there are also signs that President Joe Biden may be joining them.

Under pressure of the pro-Taiwan forces in Washington, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has already passed the Taiwan Policy Act (TPA) which would provide the island US$6.5 billion in military aid, and give it the benefits of being a major non-Nato ally as well as requiring sanctions as a response to possible Chinese aggression against Taiwan. Endorsed by the Senate just weeks after Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan, the game-changing legislation spearheaded by Democratic Senator Bob Menendez from New Jersey and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina is now making its way through the labyrinth of the congressional process.

China has warned that if the Senate adopts the TPA, which would require elevating the status of the US representative to Taipei to that of an ambassador, that would amount to treating Taiwan as a sovereign and independent country in apparent violation of the “one China” policy which has been in place since the 1979 passage of the Taiwan Relations Act and “shake the foundations” of the Sino-American relationship. The White House had initially expressed reservations about some provisions in the TPA, arguing that it would “contravene” Biden’s diplomatic authority, and requested that the bill be amended. But then, in an intervew aired recently on 60 Minutes, Biden pledged that the US would send troops to Taiwan if China tried to invade the island.