By Hua Zhang
On December 13 to 14, local time, the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States Congress successively passed the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which will come into effect upon signature by President Biden. The act has been authorized to allocate a staggering USD 886 billion towards national defense expenditure, setting a new record high. In addition, it also involves many adverse contents concerning China, especially indicating the new tendencies in the US consistent acts of arming Taiwan. These invite the necessity of being vigilant about the country's malevolent intention of eroding the foundation of peace across the Taiwan Strait in the name of defense.
The Taiwan-related part of the act shows that the US Congress required the defense minister to establish a comprehensive training, advising and institutional capacity building program for the military forces of Taiwan based on consultations with the relevant officials of the region. This program is required to "enable a layered defense of Taiwan by the military forces of Taiwan, including in support of the use of an asymmetric defense strategy", to enhance interoperability and encourage information sharing between the United States Armed Forces and the military forces of Taiwan, and to improve the so-called "professional military education and the civilian control of the military". Such a move obviously violates the three joint communiqués between China and the US as well as the one-China principle and particularly deviates from President Biden's pledge not to support Taiwan independence that was made during his recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco.
As the China-US friction intensifies, the US is no longer inclined to maintain the appearance of honoring its commitments, even in a token manner. Instead, it regards such perfidious acts as a potent leverage to suppress China and undermine peace across the Taiwan Strait, which can be seen from the gradual adjustment of the US policies toward Taiwan in the NDAAs of the past five years.
In 2020, the US proposed to incorporate the practical results of their interactions with Taiwan into the provisions of the act, including high-level contacts of the US Department of State and Department of Defense with the Taiwan side, substantive assistance in strengthening the defense of Taiwan, and cyber security agendas. The 2021 act purported to assist Taiwan in maintaining its self-defense capabilities and establishing the so-called Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI). The 2022 act explicitly proposed to provide USD 7.1 billion in funding for the PDI and included Taiwan in the US Indo-Pacific strategy beyond previous cooperation. The 2023 act even unprecedentedly introduced the delivery of military assistance worth USD 10 billion and military loans valued at USD 2 billion and accelerated arms sales to the region. This year, after the US media disclosed earlier that the US military is committed to strengthening the training of the military forces of Taiwan, the 2024 NDAA clarified in a written manner to comprehensively train the military forces of Taiwan and enhance interoperability between the forces of the two sides. These reflect that the US has gradually brought to light the shady deeds they did in the past, and even attempts to legalize and expand the scale of their military collusion with Taiwan.
To deceive the public, the US had repeatedly claimed that its military cooperation with Taiwan is only for strengthening defense. However, from the outrageous narratives that are successively poured out by American politicians, militaries, scholars, and opinion formers such as "plan to destroy Taiwan", "scorched earth policy toward Taiwan" and "blowing up TSMC", it can be clearly and unequivocally perceived that the so-called US defense is virtually to increase the momentum and support for the Taiwan independence forces from humans, finances, resources, and other aspects, and to transgress the red line of the Chinese mainland through escalating the tensions across the Taiwan Strait, for the ultimate pursuit of private gains by undermining regional security and stability.
However, the Taiwan separatists take every empty check issued by the US as a recognition and encouragement for their political performance, and an instrument for tricking to secure votes and seeking political self-interest. Therefore, they always cooperate with the US with great gratitude and enthusiasm. Upon the announcement of the 2024 act, the defense department in Taiwan issued a press release to "thank" the US Congress in the first time, saying that the endorsement of the act exhibits the so-called support for Taiwan from the US.
The collusion between the US and the Taiwan independence forces has become the most detrimental factor in the Taiwan Strait situation. Chinese compatriots across the Strait should remain highly vigilant against the US' acts of imposed meddling in Taiwan affairs, instigating trouble and distorting facts in the region.
Editor's note: Originally published on china.com.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
