The Trump administration classified US$300 million in military aid to Taiwan as secret, sparking doubts from both parties in Congress

U.S. President Trump (right) and Chinese President Xi Jinping attended a welcome ceremony at the White House a few days ago. Senior US officials revealed that Trump will make a ruling on a new round of arms sales to Taiwan in the near future. However, the Trump administration classified US$300 million in military aid to Taiwan as confidential, triggering strong doubts in Congress. (AP)

After U.S. President Trump held a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington a few days ago, a huge amount of aid related to Taiwan's defense erupted into a political storm. US media revealed that the US$300 million (approximately NT$9.6 billion) in free military aid originally approved by the US Congress to be provided to Taiwan was not disbursed before the legal deadline of September 30. The Trump administration has "directly classified the current status of the funds as confidential," triggering public criticism from heavyweight members of both parties in the Senate.

The Washington Sun reported exclusively, quoting four people familiar with the situation, that U.S. State Department officials have recently explained to congressional staff the handling of this "Foreign Military Financing" (FMF) payment. However, the details of the entire case have been classified as confidential files, and Congress has no way of knowing whether the nearly 10 billion yuan in funds has been transferred to other accounts for retention, or has expired at the end of the fiscal year. The public database of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shows that as of the end of the fiscal year, the US$300 million originally planned to be provided to Taiwan has indeed not yet been disbursed.

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This black box investigation triggered a cross-party shock on Capitol Hill. When asked about the whereabouts of the military aid, Brian Schatz, the top Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's State Department panel, said bluntly that because the relevant information has been classified as confidential by the executive branch, "I don't know how to answer it without breaking the law."

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair and Republican heavyweight Senator Susan Collins also told the newspaper that she has been fighting for the release of this fund and would be extremely shocked if security assistance to Taiwan became a bargaining chip between Trump and Xi.

The legal deadline has expired and the funds have not been allocated. Big bosses from the two parties are at war.

Chris Coons, the top Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense panel, even issued a formal statement criticizing the U.S.'s security commitment to Taiwan as a matter of law and by no means optional. Koons said bluntly: "In the face of China's increasingly rampant aggression in the region, Congress has approved billions of dollars for Taiwan's defense, but the Trump administration has blocked this funding in order to appease the Chinese government. This is absolutely not the way our national security should operate."

Since Trump’s visit to Beijing in May this year, the executive branch has continued to suspend a number of security aids to Taiwan, including US$300 million in foreign military financing, US$1 billion in the Pentagon’s Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, and scheduled arms sales totaling approximately US$14 billion. Faced with questions from Congress, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department did not directly respond to the actual whereabouts of the money. He only reiterated the policy positions of Trump and Secretary of State Rubio and emphasized that the U.S. policy toward Taiwan has not changed.