[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 13 (Thursday, January 20, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S371-S373]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
S.T.A.N.D. With Taiwan Act Of 2022
Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, today I introduce the S.T.A.N.D. with
Taiwan Act of 2022, which would mandate comprehensive and devastating
economic and financial sanctions against the Chinese Communist Party,
key sectors of China's economy, and leaders in the Chinese Communist
Party, if the Chinese People's Liberation Army initiates a military
invasion of the island democracy of Taiwan. Representative Mike
Gallagher of Wisconsin introduced an identical bill in the House today
as well.
I am hopeful that when my colleagues come back from recess, the vast
majority of Senators here, Democrats and Republicans, will end up
joining me in supporting this important bill.
Last March, in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, I posed
this
[[Page S372]]
question to the INDOPACOM commander, Admiral Davidson:
Given the Chinese Communist Party's recent but long list of
coercive and even violent actions--a hostile suppression of
freedom in Hong Kong, threatening nuclear war with Japan,
hand-to-hand combat with Indian soldiers in the Himalayas,
economic blockades of Australia, genocide in its own Xinjiang
province, [and aggressive naval actions in the South China
Sea]--how do such actions impact your analysis [Admiral
Davidson] on if and when China would invade Taiwan?
His response to me in this hearing made news around the world. He
called these recent actions by President Xi ``alarming,'' and then he
said:
I think the threat [of an invasion of Taiwan] is manifest
during this decade, in fact, in the next 6 years.
Six years--that is not a lot of time. The Senate needs to focus on
this issue much more. Indeed, this issue is not unrelated to the
actions of another dictator--Vladimir Putin--who is right now
threatening and likely to invade one of his neighbors--Ukraine.
Now, some see the defense of Taiwan as a luxury we cannot afford in
an age of sharpened and great power competition and China's global
economic strength. I reject that view. Importantly, so does American
law, particularly the Taiwan Relations Act, which this body passed in
1979 by a vote of 90 to 6. Among other things, it states the following:
The United States will consider any effort to determine the
future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means . . . a threat
to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of
grave concern.
The free world cannot be neutral in the contest between freedom and
authoritarianism that is once again underway around the world,
especially in the Indo-Pacific region.
American alliances, power, and ingenuity helped build a world that
provided more freedom and prosperity to more people than ever before.
Think about this fact: The U.S. democracy, bolstered by our strong
military, has done more to liberate humankind from oppression and
tyranny--literally hundreds of millions of people--than any other force
in human history.
The Chinese Communist Party knows exactly what it wants to
accomplish--to make the world safe for its authoritarian government, to
export its dictatorship model to other countries, to separate America
from its democratic allies, and to erode U.S. leadership around the
world.
A world governed by Xi Jinping's totalitarian vision would be a world
unsafe for America and other democracies around the world. That is why
Taiwan is so central to the free world and its future. It is a
thriving, prosperous Chinese democracy that holds free elections and
bounds its power by the rule of law. For that reason, it threatens the
CCP's central premise, which is that one man ruling in perpetuity by
crushing all dissent knows what is best for 1.4 billion people.
The Chinese Communist Party has already crushed Hong Kong, once a
bastion of liberty, and the free world barely raised its voice in
protest. Should America and the world stand by as China does something
similar to Taiwan, a peaceful democracy of 25 million people who have
voted for an entirely different future, that would not simply undermine
the security of the Western Pacific, as the Taiwan Relations Act says.
A violent military takeover of Taiwan by the Chinese Communist Party
would be a sea change in how the world is ordered. It would change the
history of the 21st century in ways that the guns of August of 1914
changed the 20th century.
=========================== NOTE ===========================
On page S372, January 20, 2022, second column, the following
appears: Should America and the world stand by as China does
something similar to Taiwan, a peaceful democracy of 25 million
people who have voted for an entirely different future? That would
not simply undermine the security of the Western Pacific, as the
Taiwan Relations Act says, a violent military takeover of Taiwan
by the Chinese Communist Party would be a sea change in how the
world is ordered.
The online Record has been corrected to read: Should America and
the world stand by as China does something similar to Taiwan, a
peaceful democracy of 25 million people who have voted for an
entirely different future, that would not simply undermine the
security of the Western Pacific, as the Taiwan Relations Act says.
A violent military takeover of Taiwan by the Chinese Communist
Party would be a sea change in how the world is ordered.
========================= END NOTE =========================
Taiwan is not some peripheral sideshow in terms of global great-power
competition; it is the frontline between freedom and tyranny, like West
Berlin was during the height of the Cold War. It matters everywhere.
Last month, the magazine the National Review highlighted many of
these issues in an excellent issue which laid out the arguments for and
against whether the U.S. military should come to Taiwan's aid if the
island democracy was invaded by the Chinese military. Should our
country militarily defend democratic Taiwan after the CCP launches a
military invasion of the island? This is a vitally important question
which was front and center in the National Review last month. As the
National Review points out, there is much disagreement on this issue.
There are powerful arguments on both sides, as this issue admirably
demonstrates, but I believe there is much less disagreement on whether
the United States should take actions now to deter a Chinese Communist
Party military invasion of Taiwan in the future. Indeed, taking actions
now to promote deterrence of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is an area
where I believe there is broad bipartisan agreement and support in the
U.S. Senate.
Deterrence comes in many forms, and with regard to Taiwan, I believe
there are three crucial layers of deterrence, as depicted here.
First is Taiwan's ability to militarily defend itself, the so-called
hedgehog approach right here, where Taiwan musters sufficient self-
defense capabilities to make a Chinese military invasion very difficult
and very costly.
The second layer of deterrence is America's capability and will to
defend Taiwan militarily should the President of the United States
decide to do so once there is an invasion by the Chinese.
Over the past several decades, through many different crises in the
Taiwan Strait, this layer, the American layer of deterrence, has proven
to be decisive in keeping the Taiwanese people free. Our deep network
of allies in the region augments this level of deterrence.
As it relates to deterrence in Taiwan, it is really often discussed
only in these two layers, but there is a third layer that is depicted
here, which in terms of the present circumstances might be the most
important, and that is the use of other instruments of American power
beyond our military, such as our global economic and financial
strengths, to deter China from an invasion.
That is exactly what my bill, the S.T.A.N.D. with Taiwan Act of 2022,
is all about. The full name of this bill is Sanctions Targeting
Aggressors of Neighboring Democracies--aka S.T.A.N.D.--with Taiwan.
It is a simple bill but a very powerful one, especially in terms of
its deterrent effect. It states that if the Chinese Communist Party
initiates a military invasion of Taiwan, the United States shall impose
a comprehensive suite of mandatory economic and financial sanctions.
The bill lays out these comprehensive sanctions, some of which are
listed here, in great detail. These sanctions would be crippling to the
Chinese Communist Party, its leaders, and key sectors of China's
economy.
The bill also calls on the United States to coordinate such
comprehensive sanctions with our allies around the globe, with the goal
of making the CCP an economic pariah globally if President Xi chooses
to militarily invade Taiwan.
The bill's goal is to make very clear to President Xi today the true
cost of what such a military invasion of Taiwan would be, thereby
heightening deterrence, which we all in the U.S. Senate support.
I believe the S.T.A.N.D. with Taiwan Act of 2022 should receive broad
bipartisan support. In many ways, it reinforces the goals, policies,
and directives of the Taiwan Relations Act, which continues to have
overwhelming support here in the U.S. Senate.
The defense of Taiwan is an issue that has been weaved in and out of
the careers and professions of countless Americans, including my own.
Over 25 years ago, in 1995 and 1996, I was a Marine infantry officer
deployed to the Taiwan Strait as part of a Marine amphibious task force
and two U.S. carrier strike groups, all in response to the Chinese
Communist Party's aggressive military provocations on the eve of
Presidential elections in Taiwan--the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, this
period is now called. That was an important and decisive demonstration
of American commitment and resolve to an emerging democracy and partner
that is still remembered today on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
More recently, I was part of another demonstration of American
commitment and resolve when I traveled to Taiwan with Democrat Senators
Tammy Duckworth and Chris Coons to provide vaccines--close to a
million--from the United States for the Taiwanese people in the face of
the Chinese Communist Party's aggressive attempts to prevent the
citizens of Taiwan from receiving these lifesaving Western medicines.
[[Page S373]]
I am now a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, working again on
these issues in the INDOPACOM theater.
Let me conclude with this: American commitment and resolve for Taiwan
has been part of our law, heritage, trade, economics, and military
deployments for decades and should be for decades to come. The
S.T.A.N.D. with Taiwan Act of 2022 is the next logical step to
demonstrate America's commitment to Taiwan, this time emphasizing the
deterrent power of our economic and financial strengths.
It is our values of freedom, innovation, the rule of law, individual
rights, and openness that the Chinese Communist Party is most afraid
of. We must be ready as democracies to defend these values or risk a
world increasingly governed by autocracy, surveillance, aggression, and
permanent conflict. The S.T.A.N.D. with Taiwan Act will help us do just
that.