China opposes playing 'Taiwan card'

Beijing on Friday called on Washington to remove negative China-related content in its National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, and stop playing the "Taiwan card" in an attempt to contain China.

It came after the US House of Representatives on Thursday passed the $858 billion defense bill that is higher than what the White House had sought and includes up to $10 billion in security assistance for Taiwan.

"China firmly rejects that the United States inserted negative China-related content in the act and passed the bill," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular news conference.

"Taiwan is China's Taiwan and the Taiwan question is purely China's internal affairs," she stressed, while calling for the US to abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-US joint communiques.

Mao urged the US to stop military contacts with Taiwan so as not to further damage China-US relations, adding that "China would take all necessary measures to resolutely uphold its sovereignty and security interests."

The NDAA allocates about $45 billion more for military programs than US President Joe Biden had requested, the second consecutive year Congress significantly exceeded his request.

The legislation also will remove a coronavirus vaccine mandate for troops and provides a 4.6 percent pay raise for military personnel, plus $800 million for Ukraine.

The $10 billion for a "defense modernization program" for Taiwan would be spent over five years.

The act also requires the secretaries of state and defense to "prioritize and expedite the processing of requests from Taiwan under the Foreign Military Sales program".

Divided opinion at home

But the defense bill is dividing opinion at home.

Former US congressman Ron Paul, in criticizing the bill, wrote on his Liberty Report website: "On a bipartisan basis, the US Congress shoveled tens of billions of dollars into the already severely bloated 2023 NDAA. The goal is to further provoke Russia and China to war, while further enriching the military-industrial complex."

The House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 350-80. It now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to pass easily, then to Biden to be signed into law.

Also included is a provision from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat of New York, and Senator John Cornyn, a Republican of Texas, that would prohibit federal access to semiconductor products and services made by Chinese firms, including chipmakers SMIC, CXMT and YMTC.

That section was softened, however, after US businesses objected to language that would have prohibited the purchase and use of Chinese semiconductors by any federal contractors.

To win bipartisan support for the bill, Democrats agreed to Republican demands to scrap the requirement for service members to get a COVID-19 vaccination. The bill directs Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to rescind his August 2021 memorandum imposing the mandate.

More than 8,000 active-duty service members were discharged when they refused the vaccine.

Agencies contributed to this story.