US Senator Marco Rubio on Thursday introduced a bill that seeks to strengthen US air bases in the Indo-Pacific region to better respond to mainland Chinese aggression against Taiwan.
The Chinese Preemptive Strike Deterrence Act “directs the US Department of Defense to strengthen US installations in the Indo-Pacific to help further deter a preemptive strike against US forces and assets. US in the region by China before an invasion of Taiwan”.
War games conducted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies showed that Beijing’s strategy if it were to mount such an invasion would be to attack US bases in the region with missiles, a statement from Rubio’s office said. .
The bill calls for a survey of aviation assets in the region to determine if any of those that would be needed to respond to an invasion of Taiwan lack improvements that “mitigate damage to aircraft in the event of a missile, drone air or other form of attack. attack by the People’s Republic of China.
When the survey is complete, the secretary of defense will deliver the survey results to the appropriate congressional committees, which will then enact plans to make the improvements.
“Senator Rubio has been clear about the importance of defending Taiwan,” a representative from Rubio’s office told the FRG Mandarin Service, citing Taiwan’s National Resilience and Protection Act, a bill that Rubio and his colleagues presented in March that seeks to create a plan to deal with a possible invasion.
When asked if US lawmakers were working with President Biden to prevent threats to US airspace, Rubio’s office criticized the administration, saying that “seems to be more concerned with not antagonizing China rather than taking the necessary steps to protect the US military from future attacks.”
Communist mainland China views democratic Taiwan as a rogue province. Beijing insists that its diplomatic partners accept its claim to the island of Taiwan, which it calls the “one China” policy, effectively forcing them to cut ties with the democratic island.
Last month, Beijing held military exercises in waters around the island of Taiwan, prompting Taipei Foreign Minister Joseph Wu to say: “It seems they are trying to prepare to launch a war against Taiwan.”
In FebruaryCIA Director William Burns has said that Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to be able to invade Taiwan within the next four years.
Additional reporting by Bing Xiao for RFA Mandarin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
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