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| Tso Ying, formerly USS Kidd (Image: Flickr User - Donald MacLeod) |
By Shannon Tiezzi
A House amendment to a defense spending bill could force the Pentagon to invite Taiwan to the RIMPAC exercises.
On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the FY 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which provides the U.S. military with funding. Buried in the text is an amendment that would make things awkward for the Pentagon: if mainland China is invited to the next installment of the RIMPAC exercises, the bill would compel the U.S. secretary of defense to extend an invitation to Taiwan as well.
The amendment, according to the House Committee on Rules, “requires that the Secretary of Defense invite military forces of Taiwan to participate in any maritime exercise (RIMPAC) if the Secretary has invited the military forces of People’s Republic of China to participate in such exercise.” The addition was proposed by Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC), who also proposed a number of other amendments (including an unsuccessful bid to ban the president from holding cyber security working groups with Russia and China until certifying that those countries “have ceased carrying out state-sponsored economic espionage in cyberspace against the U.S.”).
This isn’t the first time Congress has tried to finagle Taiwan an invite to the massive international naval exercises, which are held every two years off the coast of Honolulu. In 2013, Senator Dan Coats (R-IN) introduced an amendment to the FY 2014 NDAA expressing the Senate’s support for Taiwan to join RIMPAC.
Read the full story at The Diplomat