US Congressional Committee Urges Creation of Taiwan Weapons Reserve To Counter Xi Jinping Threat

The House China Committee on Wednesday approved 10 bipartisan proposals to deter Xi Jinping from launching an attack on Taiwan. 

What Happened: A new U.S. congressional committee on China unanimously approved the advancement of the Taiwan proposals, developed in response to table-top war games conducted in April, in a voice vote. 

The committee’s chairman, Republican Representative Mike Gallagher, said, "At the select committee's Taiwan war game, we saw the terrifying result of deterrence failure."

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"If we want to have a hope of stopping World War III, we need to arm Taiwan to the teeth right now. We must clear the embarrassment that is the $19 billion [foreign military sale] backlog."

"To paraphrase President Eisenhower: ‘The only way to win this war is to prevent it.' That means strengthening deterrence and making it clear to Xi Jinping that attacking Taiwan would be a disastrous mistake."

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The committee's 10 recommendations for Taiwan include creating a war reserve stockpile of weapons in the island nation, prioritizing weapons delivery for Taipei, and granting authorization for multiyear procurement contracts for ammunition. The proposals also highlight the need to strengthen U.S. military forces across the Indo-Pacific region and enhance training and coordination between the two nation's militaries.

Why It Matters: The congressional decision comes when Taiwan and its Western allies repeatedly warned that Xi is learning from Vladimir Putin‘s war in Ukraine and can attack the island nation soon.

In the past year, Beijing has heavily ramped up military and political pressure to try and get Taipei to accept China's sovereignty, including staging war games near the island and warplanes into Taiwan's air defense zone.

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