[Central News Agency] McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives, said today that China will try to influence Taiwan's election, and if it fails, it may block and invade Taiwan.

He bluntly stated that Taiwan is not ready yet, and Washington should provide Taiwan with weapons as soon as possible, and cooperate with AUKUS and Quad members to strengthen deterrence.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives held a hearing on the 2024 fiscal year budget this morning, inviting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to attend and explain.

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Michael McCaul, a Republican, pointed out at the meeting that he personally believes that Chinese President Xi Jinping will try to influence Taiwan's election in January.

He warned: "In comparison, the scale of the Russo-Ukrainian war may pale in comparison."

McCall bluntly said that Taiwan is not ready yet, the United States and Taiwan have no joint military exercises, and the delivery of US arms sales to Taiwan has also been seriously delayed.

He called on the U.S. not to repeat the same mistakes. It should provide Taiwan with weapons before an incident occurs in the Taiwan Strait, and cooperate with members of the "Australia, Britain and the United States Tripartite Security Partnership" (AUKUS) and "Quad" (Quad) to strengthen deterrence and prevent China from invading Taiwan.

He said: "People ask me why Taiwan is important? Just imagine if China invaded Taiwan tomorrow and controlled 90% of the world's (high-end semiconductor) supply chain, we would be in a miserable world."

The U.S. State Department and the Agency for International Development (USAID) have a budget of US$63.1 billion (approximately NT$1.933 billion) for fiscal year 2024, an increase of about US$2.7 billion over the previous year, of which the budget for the Indo-Pacific region has increased by 18%.

However, some lawmakers are still worried that some of the allocations for Indo-Pacific and Taiwan are not enough to meet China's challenge.

Ann Wagner, vice chairman of the Republican House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, gave an example that the new year's "Foreign Military Financing" (Foreign Military Financing, FMF) plan allocated 6.12454 billion US dollars, but the East Asia and Pacific region only received 129 million US dollars. ten thousand yuan, accounting for 2%.

Wagner also said that the 2023 Fiscal Year National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorizes Taiwan to provide up to US$2 billion in free military aid each year through the State Department's FMF program, but the new budget does not see this item.

She questioned that the Biden administration did not prioritize Taiwan.

Blinken countered that Taiwan is definitely a priority, but there are many different approaches.

He said that Taiwan was included in the FMF quota for "Emerging Global Priorities" added to the new year's budget, and that the current Foreign Military Sales (FMS) pipeline is still the most effective way to ensure that Taiwan obtains the required defense armaments.

In response to the delay in the delivery of arms sales, Blinken said that the main problem at present is still in manufacturing, and the United States will strive to simplify procedures to ensure that Taiwan has the ability to deter and resist possible aggression.

(Editor: Yang Zhaoyan) 1120324