A Senate committee on Wednesday took the first step towards providing the United States with billions of dollars in military aid directly to Taiwan and strengthened its support in response to escalating tensions with Beijing.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the Taiwan Policy bill to provide $4.5 billion in military aid over four years to the candidate who had purchased equipment from Washington for decades.
Pushing the initiative, Senators Bob Menendez and Lindsey Graham said “This is the most significant revision of US policy on Taiwan” since 1979, when Washington recognized Beijing while agreeing to maintain Taiwan’s self-defense capacity.
His bill also requires the US president to impose sanctions on China’s leading financial institutions in response to “an escalation of hostile acts against Taiwan.” It will also give the island the status of a “significant non-NATO ally”.
The text must now pass the floor of the Senate and then the House of Representatives before it is enacted by President Joe Biden. The move marks a significant rapprochement between the United States and Taiwan at a time when relations between Beijing and Washington are at their lowest point in decades.
source: Noticias
