President Joe Biden's administration plans to send a $500 million military aid package to Taiwan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told lawmakers on Tuesday.
This new aid will include weapons from existing U.S. stockpiles under the Presidential Drawdown Authority, though it's unknown what weapons will be part of the delivery.
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"That's critical in our efforts to provide Taiwan what it needs to forge self defense going forward," he said in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "You are correct. We are working on that initiative, and we hope to have an action forthcoming here, and in the near term, we will absolutely need to have the appropriations to replace those things, which we provide. And so, vice chair, we won't hesitate to come forward and ask for what we need to make sure that we maintain our stocks."
Congress authorized up to $1 billion worth of military aid for Taiwan using the PDA in the 2023 budget. This would be the first package from that authorization.
China views Taiwan, a self-governed island of roughly 24 million people, as its own territory and has continued to increase its military pressure on it while working to modernize its armed forces quickly. Chinese officials have said they are open to the possibility of pursuing "reunification" of Taiwan with the mainland by force.
The U.S. policy toward Taiwan has been the same since 1979 and is governed by the Taiwan Relations Act, which provides a legal basis to send arms to Taiwan without mandating the United States to come to its aid if attacked.
Tensions between Beijing and Washington have remained tense for months as Chinese officials have recently snubbed U.S. requests for high-level communication dating back to March.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed his trip to China in early March after Beijing was caught using an apparent surveillance balloon that traversed the continental U.S. from west to east before the U.S. military shot it down off the coast of South Carolina. Following the incident, Chinese leaders, specifically its military leaders, ignored U.S. outreach.
Last week, national security adviser Jake Sullivan had a meeting with China's Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi. The White House's readout of the meeting said it was a "part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage competition."