Congress makes the following findings:
(1)
Taiwan is a free and prosperous democracy of nearly 24,000,000 people, an important contributor to peace and stability around the world, and continues to embody and promote democratic values, freedom, and human rights in Asia.
(2)
The policy of the United States toward Taiwan is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act (
22 U.S.C. 3301 et seq.), the United States-People's Republic of China joint communiqués concluded in 1972, 1978, and 1982, and the Six Assurances that President Ronald Reagan communicated to Taiwan in 1982.
(3)
Under section 2 of the Taiwan Relations Act (
22 U.S.C. 3301), it is the policy of the United
States—
(A)
“to preserve and promote extensive, close, and friendly commercial, cultural, and other relations between the people of the United States and the people on Taiwan, as well as the people on the China mainland and all other peoples of the Western Pacific area”;
(B)
“to declare that peace and stability in the area are in the political, security, and economic interests of the United States, and are matters of international concern”;
(C)
“to make clear that the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means”;
(D)
“to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States”;
(E)
“to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character”; and
(F)
“to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan”.
(4)
For decades and increasingly since the election of President Tsai Ing-wen as President of Taiwan in 2016, the Chinese Communist Party has employed a variety of coercive military and nonmilitary tactics short of armed conflict in its efforts to exert existential pressure on Taiwan, including through diplomatic isolation, restricting tourism, cyberattacks, spreading disinformation, and controlling the ability of Taiwan to purchase COVID–19 vaccines from other countries.
(5)
Since 2020, military incursions by the People's Republic of China into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone have been occurring at a rapidly increasing pace. In 2022, such incursions occurred 1,700 times, nearly double the total in 2021, which was itself almost triple the 2020 total.
(6)
Since 2021, there has been a notable increase in military provocations by the People’s Liberation Army against Taiwan, including incursions over the midline separating the People's Republic of China from Taiwan, holding military exercises in the vicinity of Taiwan’s controlled waters, and performing live-fire exercises in the South China Sea.
(7)
In August 2022, the People's Republic of China held unprecedented live-fire military exercises and a simulated blockade involving hundreds of military aircraft, dozens of warships, and launches of short-range ballistic missiles over the territory of Taiwan.
(8)
The People’s Republic of China is attempting to erase the midline separating it from Taiwan, increasing the prospects for incidental contact between forces of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan as well as shorting reaction times related to provocations by the People's Republic of China.
(9)
On August 10, 2022, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China released a white paper entitled “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era” that reiterated the long-standing position of the Government of the People's Republic of China not to renounce the use of force to bring about unification with Taiwan and to “always be ready to respond with the use of force … to interference by external forces or radical action by separatist elements”.
(10)
In March 2021, then Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson testified that the threat of a military invasion of Taiwan by the People’s Liberation Army “is manifest during this decade, in fact in the next six years”.
(11)
In March 2021, then Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet Admiral John Aquilino testified that the threat of a military invasion by the People’s Liberation Army of Taiwan is “much closer to us than most think” and could materialize well before 2035.
(12)
On February 24, 2022, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation initiated an unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine, resulting in at least 14,000 civilian casualties, including more than 5,000 deaths.
(13)
The Russian Federation invasion has destabilized global markets and supply chains, from energy to food, contributing to high inflation and recession in the United States and deep cuts to global gross domestic product.
(14)
With the assistance of the United States and European allies, Ukrainian forces have successfully repelled the Russian Federation invasion and recaptured significant portions of territory taken by the Russian Federation in the initial stages of the invasion.
(15)
In addition to military power, timely messaging around the use of economic and financial instruments of United States power and their potential use can have an important deterrent effect on the actions of other countries.