The United States must learn from its mistakes with Ukraine to come up with the best strategy to support Taiwan, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Menendez wrote in a New York Times opinion article on Wednesday.
The New Jersey Democrat wrote, "We saw the warning signs for Ukraine in 2014 and failed to take action that might have deterred further Russian aggression. We cannot afford to repeat that mistake with Taiwan."
Menendez emphasized that "a clear lesson from the war in Ukraine is that authoritarian leaders have been emboldened in recent years by dysfunctional democracies and hesitant international institutions," meaning that "the United States needs less ambiguity to guide our approach to Taiwan.
"In today's world … a robust and credible deterrence to preserve peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait requires clarity in word and deed."
Menendez insisted that the U.S. must be clear that Beijing using House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan "as an excuse for performative sound and fury is simply that: a pretext for more aggressive steps that China has been preparing to take anyway," adding that "the result of Beijing's bluster should be to stiffen resolve in Taipei, in Washington and across the region."
Menendez noted that "there are many strategies to continue standing up to Chinese aggression; there is clear bipartisan congressional agreement on the importance of acting now to provide the people of Taiwan with the type of support they desperately need."
Menendez wrote that this is why he worked with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham to introduce the bipartisan Taiwan Policy Act of 2022.
Menendez said the legislation "would reinforce the security of Taiwan by providing almost $4.5 billion in security assistance over the next four years and recognizing Taiwan as a 'major non-NATO ally'… [and] would also expand Taiwan's diplomatic space through its participation in international organizations and in multilateral trade agreements."
In addition, the legislation would "take concrete steps to counter China's aggressive influence campaigns, impose crippling economic costs if Beijing takes hostile action against Taiwan … and reform American bureaucratic practices to bolster support for Taiwan's democratic government."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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