U.S. lawmaker urges allies to introduce legislation to protect Taiwan
ROC Central News Agency
03/03/2023 11:51 AM
Washington, March 2 (CNA) U.S. Republican Senator Dan Sullivan on Thursday called for allies to learn from the United States to introduce bills to deter China as its takeover of Taiwan could result in massive worldwide economic losses.
Speaking in a speech at the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, Sullivan said as Taiwan rolled out about 92 percent of high-end semiconductors in the world, the U.S. State Department had estimated the world could face US$2.5 trillion in economic losses if China successfully invaded Taiwan and took over production of the advanced ICs.
In the speech titled "A Test of Will: Why Taiwan Matters," Sullivan said that is why he introduced the Sanctions Targeting Aggressors of Neighboring Democracies with Taiwan Act, or the STAND with Taiwan Act, in January 2022, which requested the U.S. president to impose crippling and comprehensive economic and financial sanctions on China in three days in the event that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) or its proxies initiate a military invasion of the island democracy of Taiwan.
"I think one of the things that we've learned from the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia is that comprehensive economic and financial sanctions have the best chance of deterring a conflict when they're clearly defined and ready to go before the conflict begins," Sullivan said. "I have been working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get this passed."
"Not only that, on CODELs (congressional member delegations) all around the world in Germany, at Munich, in Brussels, in London, in Korea, in Japan, I've been pitching our allies to do the same," he said.
Sullivan said by doing so the same, all of the United States' key allies, which account for 60-70 percent of the world's gross domestic product, will tell Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) "If you do it, here's what you're going to get."
Sullivan added that similar legislation could have a huge deterrent effect on a Chinese military invasion of Taiwan.
In addition to the economic losses, Sullivan said a takeover of Taiwan by China could deal a blow to U.S. national security as many of Washington's weapon systems, F-35s, radars and advanced missile defense systems rely on these chips.
"Think about the threat to U.S. national security if the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping controlled them," Sullivan said.
"With a successful invasion of Taiwan, it is very unlikely that that massive force stays put. There will be pressure and opportunities from the Chinese Communist Party and the PLA and Xi Jinping to push that very massive force out into other regions of the world," Sullivan added.
Sullivan noted that, as a young Marine, he had been on the USS Belleau Wood when the amphibious assault ship sailed through the Taiwan Strait during the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996.
When asked by Miles Yu (余茂春), senior fellow and director of Hudson Institute's China Center, to give advice to Taiwan in case of China's invasion, Sullivan said that while Washington would support Taipei, people in Taiwan should be determined to defend their freedom and their homes and demonstrate they will fight to the death, and it will be the most important thing to do.
"There's some members of Congress who are like, 'I'm not sure they'll do that.' Is it going to be Ukraine, which is what we want? Or is it going to be Afghanistan where the American people and the American soldiers, let's face it, we're fighting a hell of a lot harder than the Afghans for the most part," Sullivan said.
Sullivan said during his visit to Taiwan a couple of years ago, he found the training of the Taiwan military was "not that impressive."
He suggested Taiwan have a reserve force that can get in and fight and need the weapon systems much more focused on asymmetric warfare instead of big-ticket items such as F-35s and tanks.
In addition, the senator said that the U.S. executive and legislative branches should continue to observe the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) to maintain peace and prosperity in Taiwan.
The Act was enacted in 1979 to maintain commercial, cultural and other unofficial relations between the U.S. and Taiwan after Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. The TRA also requires the U.S. "to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character."
(By Stacy Hsu and Frances Huang)
Enditem/ASG
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