Pressure Regulatory Organizations to End Chinese Threats to Taiwan Act

Floor Speech

I rise in support of H.R. 803, the PROTECT Taiwan Act, sponsored by Congressman Lucas of Oklahoma and Congressman Vicente Gonzalez of Texas.

This bill would impose financial consequences on China if it launched a major act of aggression against Taiwan. Specifically, this bill would require Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to seek China's exclusion from the proceedings of the major financial institutions and international organizations. These include the G20, the Bank for International Settlements, the Financial Stability Board, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, and the International Organization of Securities Commissions.

In short, this bill would deny China the economic, political, and diplomatic benefits of participation in the international organizations that ensure stability of financial markets and businesses if it were to engage in a major act of aggression against Taiwan.

This bill imposes a high threshold with regard to what kind of aggression would trigger this action. Specifically, it requires a Presidential notification to Congress under section 3(c) of the Taiwan Relations Act, which would only occur if there were a substantial threat to Taiwan. For reference, section 3(c) was not triggered during the tensions of the Third Taiwan Straits Crisis of the 1990s.

I also thank the bill's sponsor for working with Democrats to adopt changes to the bill that ensures it closely mirrors a similar law passed in the last Congress aimed at Russia following its unlawful invasion of Ukraine.

Accordingly, the United States is now actively seeking Russia's exclusion from these international bodies.

If China were to cross the line Russia crossed by invading Ukraine, we would similarly seek to exclude them from these international bodies.

This legislation from Congressmen Lucas and Gonzalez is designed to send a message to China, discouraging escalation of its aggression toward Taiwan.

I again note that while I agree that sending a strong signal to China regarding the United States' support for the prevention of conflict in the Taiwan Strait is important, we must also send a strong signal to Russia by providing additional funding to our fellow democracy, Ukraine.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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