Chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Weicker met with Yu Dawei: Congress must ensure its security commitment to Taiwan

"Reuters" reported that Roger Wicker, chairman of the U.S. Republican Senate Armed Services Committee, said after a meeting with Taiwan Representative to the United States Yu Dakai on the 29th that Washington must maintain its security commitments to Taiwan and emphasized that Congress has the responsibility to ensure the implementation of the "Taiwan Relations Act."

Four Republican federal senators, including Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis, jointly sent a letter to Secretary of State Rubio and Secretary of War Hegseth on the 23rd to immediately unfreeze more than $15 billion in shelved national security assistance to Taiwan.

According to the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, Washington is obliged to provide Taiwan with the means of self-defense. Wecker issued a statement saying, "As members of Congress, we have a responsibility to ensure that this law is complied with," and emphasized that decisions regarding Taiwan's defense needs should be based on a joint assessment of military necessity by the United States and Taiwan.

Wecker also said that he and Yu Da'ao also discussed China's increasing aggressiveness against the United States' Indo-Pacific allies.

China has repeatedly called for a halt to arms sales to Taiwan. In May this year, after visiting Beijing, Trump said that he would suspend a new arms sales plan worth approximately US$14 billion. However, during the "Trump-Xi meeting" held last week, Trump only said that the Chinese leader understood his position on the Taiwan issue.

Wecker called on Washington to maintain past policy precedents and mentioned that during the time of former President Ronald Reagan, the United States stated that it would not negotiate with Beijing on arms sales to Taiwan.