William Lai Is on the 2024 TIME100 List

Taiwan Representative Office Act (H.R.3171 & S.1513)

In Taiwan, finding solace - and identity - in traditional healing

US approves first-ever military aid to Taiwan through program typically used for sovereign nations

The Biden administration has approved funding for the first-ever transfer of US military equipment to Taiwan under a program typically saved for sovereign nations, according to a notification sent to Congress on Tuesday.

The package - which is part of the State Department's foreign military financing (FMF) program - totals $80 million and will be paid for by US taxpayers.

Under the Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act passed last year, the US government is authorized to spend up to $2 billion annually in military grant assistance to the island from 2023 to 2027.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul welcomed the approval.

Some 43 years ago, the United States Congress overwhelmingly passed — and President Jimmy Carter signed into law — the Taiwan Relations Act, one of the most important pillars of U.S. foreign policy in the Asia Pacific.

And it made a solemn vow by the United States to support the defense of Taiwan: “to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means … a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States.”

America must stand by Taiwan, which is an island of resilience.

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    Taiwan

    Taioaan

    Taiwan is known as Ilha Formosa, 'the beautiful island'. It is located about midway between Japan and Philippines.

    Shaped roughly like a yam, Taiwan is 394 kilometers (245 miles) long and 144 kilometers (89.5 miles) wide at its broadest point. The Central Mountain Range bisects Taiwan from north to south and around two-thirds of the island is covered with forested peaks. Taiwan's highest peak is Mt. Morrison (Jade mountain). The western third of the island is where most of the population lives. The climate is mosty humid and subtropical, making many rainforests.

    The Paleo-Mongoloid racial group, lived on Taiwan 5,000 years ago during the Neolithic Ages and Alluvial Epoch. These aborigines were the forerunners in Taiwan's dawning era. Some of them were mixed with immigrants from southeastern coast of China (the Han people) through intermarriage. Currently there are 22 million people on this 35,980 sq km island.

    Taiwan has been brilliantly successful in building world-class PC systems and components industries. Export growth has provided the impetus for industrialization. Real growth in GNP has averaged about 9% a year during the past three decades. Per capita income exceeded $10,000 in 1993.

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