Taipei, April 7 (CNA) The members of a visiting American congressional delegation believe that the United States “absolutely needs” to expedite weapons deliveries to Taiwan, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said Friday in Taipei.
“I think we’re all in agreement that this absolutely needs to be done to provide the deterrence for Taiwan to promote peace in the region,” McCaul said.
“Peace through strength is real. And that’s why we need to harden Taiwan.”
McCaul was responding to a question at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan on whether his visiting delegation’s eight members planned on sponsoring bills to speed up the transfer of weapons systems Taiwan has purchased from the United States.
At the press conference, McCaul gave two options for clearing the backlog of weapons the U.S. has yet to deliver.
One would be for the U.S. Congress to re-prioritize the delivery of weapons to Taiwan, which is a “high-risk area” for war, McCaul said.
The other would be to push for “third-party sales” by persuading other countries that are already in possession of the weapons Taiwan needs to provide those weapons to Taiwan, he said.
Noting that people want peace and prosperity, not war, McCaul said: “We want to do everything we can to deter a very aggressive nation Communist China from ever thinking about landing on the shores of this beautiful island because that would be a serious mistake for everybody.”
The other members of the delegation are Democrats Ami Bera and Madeleine Dean and Republicans French Hill, Michael Lawler, Young Kim, Nathaniel Moran and Guy Reschenthaler.
Washington has run up a backlog of US$21 billion worth of defense articles it has agreed to sell Taiwan, according to a statement Kim, who chairs the House Indo-Pacific Subcommittee, made at a committee hearing in February.
The adage “peace through strength” was also the theme of McCaul’s speech at the Legislature that preceded the press conference.
“If we project strength, we get peace. If we project weakness, we invite aggression and war,” he said.
China needs to know that an invasion of or blockade around Taiwan would come at too high of a price both from a military and economic standpoint and that these actions will not be tolerated by the U.S., McCaul said.
That is why the U.S. wants to bolster Taiwan’s defenses through arms sales and joint exercises, McCaul said.
Noting that U.S. support for Taiwan is bipartisan, McCaul said: “We are friends of Taiwan. We support Taiwan, and united we will protect Taiwan from the Chinese Community Party and promote peace, freedom, democracy — the values that both of our countries hold so dearly.”
When asked to comment on a warning by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (???) on March 16 that the U.S. had excluded Taiwan from its “friendshoring” initiative to outsource semiconductor production to friendly countries, McCaul did not give a direct answer.
Instead, he talked about meeting Friday morning with executives from TSMC and Global Wafer, whom he said asked delegation members to work to end the issue of double taxation after they expand their production into the U.S.
“That is something we want to go back and work on,” McCaul said.
Source: Focus Taiwan