The U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee passed the cross-party bill “Strategic Competition Act” on April 22 with a high vote, and the Central News Agency commented that the purpose of this bill, which was spawned by the Democratic and Republican parties, is to ensure that the U.S. will be able to deal with China on all fronts in the future. The Central News Agency (CNA) commented that the bill, which was jointly sponsored by the Democratic and Republican parties, aims to ensure that the United States will be able to respond to China’s challenges and counter Beijing’s ambitions for Taiwan and the region.
The U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee has not yet announced the version of the bill passed on the 22nd, but according to the draft released by Congress on the 15th, the bill is 281 pages long, with five major chapters that propose countermeasures against Beijing’s predatory economic practices, malicious influence attacks, digital authoritarianism, military expansion, ambitions for Taiwan, oppression of Hong Kong and Xinjiang, and many other problematic actions.
The bill includes $15 million per year for fiscal years 2022 through 2027 to assist U.S. companies in withdrawing from the Chinese market and decentralizing their supply chains. It also anticipates allocating $75 million to promote the development of sustainable, transparent and high-quality infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific region to counter China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative.
The bill also plans to allocate $300 million per year from 2022 to 2026 to counter China’s malicious influence attacks around the world. In the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s media war, the bill also plans to allocate $100 million per year over the same period to fund U.S. support for media abroad, establish independent media, and combat disinformation. It also invests in programs to circumvent speech-censorship technology.
In the face of China’s aggressive military expansion, the bill warns that the military balance in the Indo-Pacific region is increasingly against the United States, and that unifying Taiwan is a key step in the Communist Party’s ambition to achieve regional hegemony; the defense of Taiwan has become even more urgent as the Beijing authorities may accelerate their timetable for action against Taiwan after taking over Hong Kong.
The bill emphasizes that defending Taiwan will help limit the ability of the Chinese Communist Party to project military power beyond the first island chain. The U.S. should also strengthen the Indo-Pacific Regional Security Partnership, including supporting Japan’s development of long-range precision firepower and encouraging and facilitating Taiwan’s accelerated acquisition of asymmetric defense capabilities.
To further strengthen the partnership between the U.S. and Taiwan, the bill states that U.S. policy should recognize Taiwan as an important part of the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy and promote Taiwan’s security and democracy as a key element in maintaining peace and stability in the “greater Indo-Pacific region,” as well as important U.S. national security interests. The U.S. should also regularly engage in arms sales to Taiwan and actively promote Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations.
In addition, the bill makes a rare claim that the U.S. should give Taiwan equal treatment with other governments. The bill calls for the U.S. Department of State and other government agencies to deal with Taiwan’s elected government on the same basis as other foreign governments, and to use the same language and courtesy. The U.S. should not impose any restrictions that limit the ability of the State Department and other units to interact directly and regularly with Taiwan.
The bill adds, however, that its contents should not be interpreted as requiring the resumption of diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) or as changing the position of the U.S. government on Taiwan’s international status.
In terms of promoting democracy and human rights values, the bill plans to allocate $10 million in fiscal year 2022 for the U.S. State Department to promote democracy in Hong Kong, and will also expand Xinjiang sanctions to include forced labor and forced birth control as acts to be named and sanctioned by the U.S. president.
At the 22nd meeting of the U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.Y.) and Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Republican Ranking Member Jim Risch (D-N.Y.) spoke separately. Menendez said: “The challenge from China is unprecedented in scale, scope and urgency and requires a comprehensive and competitive U.S. policy and strategy to address it. The bill brings together an unprecedented cross-party effort to use all of America’s economic and diplomatic tools to develop a new Indo-Pacific strategy that will allow the United States to truly confront the national security and economic challenges posed by China.
Democrat Menendez also noted that “strategic competition” is undoubtedly the right framework for viewing the U.S.-China relationship, not because it is what the U.S. wants or what the U.S. is trying to create, but because of Beijing’s past and present choices.
With the endorsement of heavyweight members of both parties, the bill passed the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee with a high vote of 21 in favor and 1 against; Republican Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) was the only member to vote against the bill. The bill will be sent to the full Senate for consideration and passage, and then submitted to the President of the United States for signature before taking effect.
As the bill has become the most significant anti-centralization bill in the United States in recent years, the content is complicated, a number of legislators have proposed their own amendments in the session, hoping to include their own ideas in this historic bill. To avoid the bill’s content touching other committee responsibilities and to ensure the bill has a chance to pass in the House and Senate in the future, only a few amendments were given the chance to be included.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), for example, proposed changing the title of the director of the AIT Taipei office to “Representative” and requiring Senate consent for the appointment. However, Rubio’s amendment received 11 votes for and 11 votes against, not a majority, and was not included in the bill.
Meanwhile, the “Taiwan Sovereignty Symbol Act” proposed by Republican Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the last Congress was adopted as an amendment package at the beginning of the session. The bill would allow Taiwan’s diplomatic and military personnel to display the flag and wear uniforms in U.S. territory.
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