The threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is enough reason to provide billions of dollars in additional funding to prevent a similar scenario from occurring between China and Taiwan, according to one lawmaker.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, introduced legislation Thursday that would provide $3 billion to Taiwan each fiscal year from 2023 to 2027 to fund the country’s deployment of asymmetric defense capabilities.
With Russia capable of launching an incursion into Ukraine “at any point,” as the White House described this week, Gallagher told the Washington Examiner in an interview that the situation “presents a warning for Taiwan.”
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“We don’t want to be caught in the same scenario two years from now,” he added, “which is why I think that we need to attack this with a sense of urgency.”
The Chinese government has long maintained that the 24 million people who live in Taiwan are a part of mainland China, whereas those on the island have proclaimed their independence. The United States provides defense support to Taiwan but has not formally recognized its government since normalizing relations with the mainland.
Last month, Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which funds the Defense Department for each fiscal year, and it included approximately $7.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.
That money was allocated too broadly and wouldn’t be enough to truly make a difference for Taiwan, according to Gallagher, which is why he introduced his bill.
“The idea was to really complement and supplement the money for the broader region with a Taiwan-specific annual stream of funding that really is just geared towards helping Taiwan defend itself as opposed to building up purely American systems and defenses in the region,” the Wisconsin lawmaker added.
As a member of the minority party in Congress, Gallagher’s bill would need support from Democrats to pass the lower chamber. “I’m actually cautiously optimistic” about getting such support, he said, “but obviously there’s a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of convincing our colleagues.”
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China has increased aggressive actions toward Taiwan since Biden entered the White House, while the president, on two different occasions, made headlines for what appeared to be changes in policy on Taiwan, though the White House later walked back those remarks to note that there had been no alterations to the current strategy.
The DOD has repeatedly characterized China as its “pacing challenge” moving forward.
