Only days after adopting a proposed $886 billion Fiscal Year 2024 defense budget focused on countering China’s growing military threat in the Western Pacific, key House Armed Services Committee members are returning to the United States after completing three days of unannounced conferencing with officials in Guam, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
Committee chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) led the bipartisan delegation of nine Congressional lawmakers, which visited Guam for several hours on June 27 before touring Taiwan June 27–28 and spending June 29 conferring with Philippines counterparts.
Defending Taiwan and countering what the Pentagon defines as the “pacing challenge” presented by the Chinese regime in the Western Pacific are key components of both chambers’ draft defense budgets.
Rogers’ visit also comes as the Biden administration and Chinese diplomats are soft-talking about the need to stabilize the U.S.-China relationship that soured after the February Chinese surveillance balloon incident.
The nations are each other’s largest trading partners in addition to being their most challenging strategic competitors, underscoring the complexities of the strained relationship.
Three-Days of Unannounced Conferencing
During its June 27 stop on Guam, the delegation, which included territorial Del. James Moylan (R-Guam), met with Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero. While in Taiwan June 27–28, it met with President Tsai Ing-wen and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.Taiwanese media covering the visit—Rogers and fellow delegation members have not issued public statements about the tour—noted the Alabama conservative is a member of “the Congressional Taiwan Caucus,” as is the panel’s ranking member, or lead Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who also made the trip.
Although Rogers’ delegation is the third such visit by a Congressional group in 2023, the fact that the chair of the committee that funds the Pentagon was conferring with Taiwanese officials in Taipei was noted and rebuked in China.
During a June 28 Beijing press conference, China’s State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian warned that increased involvement with the U.S. military won’t end well for Taiwan’s “secessionist forces.”
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) maintains that Taiwan is part of its territory, despite the regime having never ruled over the island. The CCP vows it will reclaim the island, by force if necessary, and is openly practicing invasion maneuvers in the Taiwan Straits and South China Sea.
That same day, June 28, as the Rogers delegation was meeting with Ing-wen and Wu, Taiwan defense officials reported 11 Chinese fighter jets and four Chinese warships violated the island’s 24-mile “nautical line” that it claims as its territory.