Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims and that “only the island’s people can decide their future,” as U.S. leaders weighed whether to release stalled security assistance and arms for the island. Governments and lawmakers hold those decisions. Four Republican senators called last week for the Trump administration to release more than $15 billion in stalled national security assistance, while President Donald Trump has kept a separate new package worth about $14 billion in abeyance.
Who Controls the Decisions
On Tuesday, Sept. 29, Republican US Senator and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker met Alexander Yui, the democratically governed island’s representative to the US. Wicker said Washington’s security commitments to Taiwan must be upheld. His statement put Congress at the center of decisions over Taiwan’s defense needs.
“As members of Congress, we have a duty to make sure this law is adhered to and that decisions about the defense needs of Taiwan are based on our joint assessment of military necessity,” Wicker said. He discussed with Yui what he called the rise of Chinese aggression against the United States’ Indo-Pacific allies.
Wicker invoked the Taiwan Relations Act, which Congress enacted in 1979. The United States doesn’t have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but it is the island’s most important international backer and weapons supplier. Under the act, Washington must provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Congress has authorized and appropriated resources for enhanced training, security assistance and arms sales, Wicker said, adding that those authorities “must be used for the purposes that Congress intended.”
Aid Held Up, Arms Debated
Those congressional decisions alone haven’t moved the money and weapons. Four other senators from President Donald Trump’s Republican Party have called for the release of more than $15 billion in stalled assistance. Trump said in May, following a Beijing trip, that he was keeping a new package worth some $14 billion in abeyance.
After meeting President Xi Jinping in Washington last week, Trump said only that the Chinese leader understood his position on Taiwan. Wicker urged the US to uphold a precedent set when then-President Ronald Reagan said Washington would not consult Beijing on arms sales to Taiwan. The report doesn’t say the stalled assistance has been released or that the new package has left abeyance.
China has repeatedly called for Taiwan arms sales to end. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory; Taiwan’s government rejects that claim. Between those positions, state officials and Congress control decisions about security assistance, alongside the island’s stated right to determine its future and the material question of who supplies its defense.
Taiwan’s Position, Washington’s Leverage
Taiwan is in continuous talks with Washington about arms sales. Wellington Koo said earlier Tuesday that Taiwan had received reassurances since the Trump-Xi summit that US policy on Taiwan had not changed. Those reassurances coexist with the aid held up and Trump’s decision to keep the new package in abeyance.
Wicker argues that Congress authorized resources and that the administration should use them as intended. Trump’s actions show how much can still turn on decisions within the executive branch, even as senators invoke the law and their duty to uphold it. The report records Taiwan’s government asserting that its people alone can decide the island’s future; it also records Washington’s continuing control over the arms and assistance at issue.