Both parties in Congress are fed up with Biden. He’s being taken to task.
Because the U.S. Senate has made an announcement to hold Joe Biden’s feet to the fire.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress don’t often agree on much these days. It’s no secret that partisanship in Washington, D.C. is more potent than it’s ever been in modern American history.
When they do come together on a bipartisan move, it can be interesting to see what’s bringing the two major parties together.
Recently, U.S. Senators from the Democrat and Republican party came together to finally set the record straight on an issue that Joe Biden refuses to address at all.
The issue? China potentially invading Taiwan and what the United States would do if that were to materialize.
Over the past year, the Biden administration has been giving mixed signals about what they would do if China grew emboldened enough to actually invade Taiwan and try to lay claim to the region.
Now a group of U.S. Senators are trying to make it clear that the U.S. would have very serious consequences for the Chinese Communist Party if they ended up trying to invade Taiwan.
On Tuesday, a group of senators from both parties in the U.S. submitted a measure that would end a U.S.-PRC bilateral tax pact in the event that The People’s Republic of China (PRC) attacked Taiwan.
Taiwan has been legally and politically separate from the Communist Party-led government on the mainland since 1949, but the PRC, a trade source of the U.S. and a geopolitical opponent, has long asserted sovereignty over the island and challenged Taiwan’s government’s authority.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who is running to replace Mitch McConnell as the leader of the GOP in the upper chamber of Congress, told reporters that “the United States must make it crystal clear the Chinese Communist Party will face dire consequences if it moves to invade Taiwan.” Cornyn is also the bill’s chief sponsor.
“This legislation would require the Treasury Department to terminate the U.S.-China Tax Treaty if the Chinese Communist Party initiates an armed attack on Taiwan, and I urge my colleagues to support it.”
Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto of Nevada were co-sponsors of the measure. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was also a sponsor. As stated in the treaty language, the United States would initiate the procedure to terminate the agreement once the U.S. president determines that Taiwan has been invaded by the PRC. The withdrawal would then take six months to finish.
Despite the PRC’s rule over the considerably larger mainland, both Taiwan and the PRC — officially known as the “Republic of China” (ROC) — suspect to be the only and lawful administration of all of China’s historic current property, including the island of Taiwan.
The United States had acknowledged the ROC as China’s legitimate government up until 1979, when President Jimmy Carter formally terminated diplomatic relations and recanted recognition to the PRC, a move referred to as the “One China Policy.”
But, despite this, the U.S. still keeps up informal ties with Taiwan and keeps sending military supplies to help it fight against any possible invasion by the PLA. Even though the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act does not explicitly demand military action against the People’s Republic of China, it does require the U.S. to “maintain the capacity of the US to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan.” This policy is referred to as “strategic ambiguity.”
In terms of taxes, the House just approved a package that contains provisions for a bilateral tax deal between the U.S. and Taiwan, as well as an expansion of the Child Tax Credit negotiated by congressional tax leaders. A rift has opened up in U.S.-PRC economic ties ever since tariffs were imposed on Chinese imports.
It’s possible that if this bill made it’s way out of Congress unscathed, that Joe Biden would feel forced to sign it given the bipartisan nature of how it has come about.
At the very least, it’s a clear consequence that China could expect if they let their pride grow to the point of invading an innocent people in Taiwan who are doing nothing to provoke the Chinese Communist Party.
That’s more than Joe Biden has been willing to say concerning the matter.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
