Taiwan president calls on US lawmakers for help to strengthen defences

Taiwan’s new president Lai Ching-te on Monday asked visiting US lawmakers to support more legislative action to help strengthen his country’s defences, underscoring his focus on closer alignment with Washington.

His request follows two days of Chinese military exercises around Taiwan, which Beijing branded a “punishment” of Lai and the US government criticised as “provocations”.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and threatens to attack it if Taipei refuses to submit under its control indefinitely. Beijing is particularly hostile towards Lai, whom it accused of being “provocative” and “deceitful” in his inaugural address a week ago, when he urged a resumption of cross-Strait exchanges but also reasserted Taiwan’s sovereignty.

The six members of the US House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee are the first congressional delegation to visit Taipei since Lai took office.

Calling them “important Taiwan-friendly forces”, Lai said: “With your support, I hope that the US Congress through legislative action will continue to assist Taiwan in strengthening its self-defence capabilities, thereby advancing bilateral exchanges and co-operation.”

The US has a commitment under domestic law to help Taiwan defend itself through arms sales, but has kept ambiguous whether it would directly come to the country’s defence in case of a Chinese assault. In April, Congress included Taiwan in a $95bn military aid package with funding for Ukraine and Israel, part of legislation seeking to strengthen defence support to Taipei and deliver it more directly.

Much of Taiwan’s weapons procurement from the US has been delayed, as the Ukraine war strained defence supply chains and Washington struggled to streamline bureaucratic procedures for the purchases. Taipei hopes more lobbying from Congress can help address both issues.

Congress has also sometimes been a bastion of support for Taiwan beyond what the US administration has been willing to do. Several bills in recent years have called for more government officials to visit Taipei and for more support for its participation in international organisations.

Without mentioning China in his public remarks, Lai expressed deep admiration for the late US president Ronald Reagan’s concept of “peace through strength”. He reiterated his intention to deepen Taiwan’s ties with the US and other like-minded countries and his pledge to pursue defence reforms.

Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the House foreign affairs committee who led the delegation, said he had a direct and sobering conversation with Lai about the military threat to Taiwan, calling last week’s Chinese drills a “preview of what a blockade would look like”. He said the US had to help deter China.

“The people of Taiwan have a brave and courageous leader in you, and we can’t wait to work with you,” McCaul told Lai. He praised the Taiwanese president’s “boldness” for stressing in his inaugural address that his country’s sovereignty lies with the people.

China’s foreign ministry immediately protested against the visit and McCaul’s remarks, saying the members of Congress had violated the US’s “promise” of conducting only unofficial relations with Taiwan and “sent a seriously wrong signal to the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces”.