Taiwan PLUS Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2103 To improve defense cooperation between the United States and Taiwan, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 19, 2021 Mr. PERRY (for himself, Mr. TIFFANY, Mr. CRENSHAW, and Mr. CHABOT) in- troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on For- eign Affairs A BILL To improve defense cooperation between the United States and Taiwan, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Taiwan PLUS Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 5 Congress finds the following: 6 (1) Taiwan is the 10th largest trading partner 7 in goods with the United States. 8 (2) Taiwan is recognized by 15 countries as an 9 independent state, and it is presently treated as a 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:44 May 25, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2103.IH H2103 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2103 IH major non-NATO ally by the United States under 1 section 1206 of the Foreign Relations Authorization 2 Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107–228; 22 3 U.S.C. 2321k note). 4 (3) The unclassified summary of the 2018 Na- 5 tional Defense Strategy notably prioritized United 6 States efforts to protect America’s allies and part- 7 ners, stating that United States defense objectives 8 include ‘‘defending allies from military aggression, 9 and bolstering partners against coercion, and fairly 10 sharing responsibilities for common defense’’. 11 (4) The Taiwan Relations Act (Public Law 96– 12 8; 22 U.S.C. 3301 et seq.) states that ‘‘the United 13 States will make available to Taiwan such defense 14 articles and defense services in such quantity as may 15 be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a suffi- 16 cient self-defense capability’’. 17 (5) Consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act, 18 the United States Congress has for four decades ap- 19 proved numerous defense articles and defense serv- 20 ices for Taiwan’s self-defense, including, since 2017, 21 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), 22 F–16 C/D fighter jets, MK 48 torpedoes, Harpoon 23 Coastal Defense Systems, Stinger man-portable air 24 defense systems, M109A6 Paladin howitzers, MS– 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:44 May 25, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2103.IH H2103 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2103 IH 110 Airborne Reconnaissance Systems, Sniper Ad- 1 vanced Targeting Pods, Field Information Commu- 2 nications Systems, and recertification of MIM–104 3 Patriot Missiles. 4 (6) Defense Security Cooperation Agency 5 (DSCA) data indicates that Taiwan was the United 6 States’ largest Foreign Military Sales customer in 7 fiscal year 2020. 8 (7) DSCA data also indicates that from fiscal 9 years 1950 through 2020, Taiwan was the United 10 States’ third-largest Foreign Military Sales cus- 11 tomer, tied with Japan. 12 (8) The Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 (sub- 13 title B of title III of division FF of Public Law 116– 14 260), states, ‘‘the United States should conduct reg- 15 ular sales and transfers of defense articles to Tai- 16 wan in order to enhance its self-defense capabilities, 17 particularly its efforts to develop and integrate 18 asymmetric capabilities, including undersea warfare 19 and air defense capabilities, into its military forces’’. 20 (9) Subparagraph (A) of section 1260(b)(1) of 21 the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 22 Year 2021 (Public Law 116–283) states, ‘‘[the 23 United States should continue] supporting acquisi- 24 tion by Taiwan of defense articles and services 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:44 May 25, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2103.IH H2103 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2103 IH through foreign military sales, direct commercial 1 sales, and industrial cooperation, with an emphasis 2 on capabilities that support the asymmetric defense 3 strategy of Taiwan, including anti-ship, coastal de- 4 fense, anti-armor, air defense, undersea warfare, ad- 5 vanced command, control, communications, com- 6 puters, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, 7 and resilient command and control capabilities.’’. 8 (10) Subparagraph (B) of section 1260(b)(1) of 9 such Act further states that the United States 10 should continue supporting the development of de- 11 fense forces necessary for Taiwan to maintain a suf- 12 ficient self-defense capability by ‘‘ensuring timely re- 13 view of an response to response to requests of Tai- 14 wan for defense articles and services’’. 15 (11) In its 2019 Recommendations to Congress, 16 the bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security 17 Commission issued the following judgement: ‘‘Con- 18 gress [should] raise the threshold of congressional 19 notification on sales of defense articles and services 20 to Taiwan to the highest tier set to U.S. allies and 21 partners. Congress [should] also terminate any re- 22 quirement to provide prior notification of mainte- 23 nance and sustainment of military equipment and 24 capabilities previously sold to Taiwan.’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:44 May 25, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2103.IH H2103 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 2103 IH SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 1 It is the sense of Congress that— 2 (1) enhanced support for defense cooperation 3 with Taiwan is critical to the national security of the 4 United States, including through designation of Tai- 5 wan as a member of the colloquially titled ‘‘NATO 6 Plus’’ community of states, which presently includes 7 Japan, Australia, the Republic of Korea, Israel, and 8 New Zealand, with respect to consideration by Con- 9 gress of Foreign Military Sales to Taiwan, as well 10 as all other rights, privileges, and responsibilities af- 11 forded to such community of states; and 12 (2) Taiwan should be so designated as a mem- 13 ber of the ‘‘NATO Plus’’ community of states. 14 SEC. 4. ENHANCED DEFENSE COOPERATION. 15 (a) IN GENERAL.—During the 5-year period begin- 16 ning on the date of the enactment of this Act, Taiwan 17 shall be treated as if it were a country listed in the provi- 18 sions of law described in subsection (b) for purposes of 19 applying and administering such provisions of law. 20 (b) PROVISIONS OF LAW DESCRIBED.—The provi- 21 sions of law described in this subsection are— 22 (1) subsections (b)(2), (d)(2)(B), (d)(3)(A)(i), 23 and (d)(5) of section 3 of the Arms Export Control 24 Act (22 U.S.C. 2753); 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:44 May 25, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2103.IH H2103 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 2103 IH (2) subsections (e)(2)(A), (h)(1)(A), and (h)(2) 1 of section 21 of such Act (22 U.S.C. 2761); 2 (3) the matter following subparagraph (P) of 3 subsection (b)(1) and subsections (b)(2), (b)(6), 4 (c)(2)(A), (c)(5), and (d)(2)(A) of section 36 of such 5 Act (22 U.S.C. 2776); 6 (4) section 62(c)(1) of such Act (22 U.S.C. 7 2796a(c)(1)); and 8 (5) section 63(a)(2) of such Act (22 U.S.C. 9 2796b(a)(2)). 10 (c) CONTINUED APPLICATION.—The Secretary of 11 State is authorized to continue to apply this section with 12 respect to Taiwan for additional 5-year periods beginning 13 after the end of the 5-year period described in subsection 14 (a) if, with respect to each such additional 5-year period, 15 the Secretary— 16 (1) determines that such continued application 17 is in the national security interests of the United 18 States; and 19 (2) submits such determination to the Com- 20 mittee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Rep- 21 resentatives and the Committee on Foreign Rela- 22 tions of the Senate not later than 14 days before the 23 start of such additional 5-year period. 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:44 May 25, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2103.IH H2103 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS