U.S. Upgrades Ways to Arm Taiwan Against China With New Legislation
Provisions in an annual defense bill let the U.S. finance weapons sales and transfer armaments from stockpiles to the self-ruled island
WASHINGTON—The U.S. is taking new steps to arm Taiwan against China, with Congress passing legislation that will finance weapons sales and authorize the potential transfer of arms from American military stockpiles to Taipei, as the U.S. has done for Ukraine.
The Taiwan provisions, tucked into this year’s $858 billion annual defense-policy bill that the Senate passed on Thursday, amount to some of the biggest changes in U.S. support for Taiwan’s defense in decades. It requires the U.S. government to accelerate the transfer of arms to Taiwan amid the continuing war in Ukraine.
For the first time, the bipartisan legislation budgets as much as $10 billion in financing and grants for weapons over five years, providing an additional avenue to transfer armaments beyond direct military sales to Taiwan. It also gives the president the authority to draw down existing stocks of U.S. weapons to transfer directly to Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack or other acts of aggression.
Upgrading Taiwan’s defenses has become a pressing priority for Washington. Defense Department officials have said that China’s military aims to acquire capabilities that would allow it to launch an attack or invasion of Taiwan by 2027. An attack, top commanders and military specialists warn, would alter the region’s security and economy, giving China greater scope to control sea lanes, pressure U.S. allies and push out American forces .
The new support package should over time give Taiwan sufficient capabilities to deter or forestall potential aggression from China and allow the U.S. to position forces in to defend the island, said Mark Montgomery, a retired admiral. He said the weapons financing and other changes go beyond the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, which committed the U.S. to support Taiwan’s defense.
“This goes significantly farther,” said Mr. Montgomery, now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank. “We are going to help you pay for weapons, stow weapons for you to access, give you presidential drawdown authority from U.S. stocks, and work together to plan and exercise.”
President Biden is expected to sign the legislation. Whether the new measures will be funded in full remains an active debate on Capitol Hill, lawmakers said.
Aside from Taiwan funding, the defense bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, also authorizes new weapons purchases for the U.S. military, increases pay for service members and ends the Pentagon’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate, despite the Biden administration’s preference that it remain in place.
Rising American support for Taiwan is among the steps the U.S. is taking to gear up for what the Biden administration sees as a decisive competition with China. On Friday, the State Department formally launched a new office to coordinate China policy and better gear the U.S. response to Beijing’s efforts to reshape the global order.
The challenges the U.S. faced in rapidly arming Ukraine has brought into greater focus concerns about equipping Taiwan and gave momentum to the new policy measures, lawmakers said. Since Russia launched its full-out assault in February, the U.S. has heaved nearly $20 billion in arms into Ukraine to help Kyiv defend itself, mostly by drawing down American stocks of missiles, artillery, drones and other weaponry.
“We’ve learned a lesson from Ukraine, where we need to make sure that we’re working with partners and friends around the globe to ensure that they are ready to push back against these authoritarian regimes,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa), who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee and is a member of the chamber’s Taiwan caucus.
Beijing, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory, has turned to military pressure, frequently sending jet fighters and naval ships near the democratically governed island. This summer, to protest a visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Beijing conducted multiday live-fire exercises and demonstrated capabilities to mount a blockade.
The financing of weapons transfers is seen as crucial to getting Taiwan the kind of armaments it needs to deter China, said Sen. Bob Menendez (D., NJ), who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said lawmakers are still negotiating over the actual funding levels as part of talks on a massive year-end government spending bill, but said it is important that the program be robustly funded.
Beyond financing, the legislation also accelerates the timelines for deliveries of arms. The Wall Street Journal in November reported a $19 billion backlog of arms deliveries to Taiwan amid the continuing conflict in Ukraine. Some weapons, like the Javelin antitank weapon and Stinger surface-to-air missile, which were approved for Taiwan in 2015 still haven’t reached the island.
The legislation also increases U.S. spending on munitions stockpiles in the Pacific region, from $200 million to $500 million a year, an increase of roughly $900 million over three years, from which Taiwan could draw if needed.
Other measures expand training and exercise between the U.S. and Taiwan. The U.S. has quietly been conducting training inside Taiwan with a small contingent of Marines and special operations forces, The Wall Street Journal reported last year.
The Ukraine conflict has strained the U.S. government and the defense industry in providing a vast number of arms in a short period. U.S. officials said, unlike Ukraine, the bulk of the strategy to arm Taiwan relies on sales, not drawing directly from U.S. stocks. Still, an official said Thursday that industrial capacity remains a concern.
“The real issue and the challenge that is in front of us now is how do we expand that production capacity, and how do we increase the diameter of the soda straw for the production of those in-demand items,” a State Department official told reporters.
The Defense Department has created one ad hoc group to look at foreign military sales, and another to examine the issues particular to the arming of Taiwan. Pentagon officials have so far declined to say what changes could be made.