Senate committee to meet this week over bipartisan Taiwan defense bill

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will meet Wednesday to discuss the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022, cosponsored by Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez and GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham.

"As Beijing continues to seek to coerce and isolate Taiwan there should be no doubt or ambiguity about the depth and strength of our determination to stand with the people of Taiwan and their democracy," Menendez said in a statement when he and Graham introduced the bill in June. He called the bill "a seminal statement of the United States’ absolute commitment to stand with Taiwan and all those who share our interests and our values in the Indo-Pacific in the face of Beijing’s military, economic, and diplomatic threats and bullying."

The bill calls for several methods of cooperating with Taiwan, including "negotiating a bilateral free trade agreement," recognizing their elected government "as the legitimate representative of the people of Taiwan," and using a Foreign Military Financing Program and other measures "to accelerate the modernization of Taiwan’s defense capabilities required to deter or, if necessary, to defeat an invasion of Taiwan by the People’s Republic of China."