In a harsh letter on Wednesday, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell urged President Trump’s administration to provide military aid to Taiwan.
Alongside three other Republicans, the Kentuckian expressed “serious concerns” about how America is treating its Asian allies amid Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit this week.
The senators also demanded answers on why congressionally appropriated funds have not made their way to Taiwan, a small island nation that the People’s Republic of China claims as its own territory.
John Cornyn of Texas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina also signed the letter.
All of the letter’s signatories will retire from the Senate in January except for Ms. Murkowski, who has two years left in her term.
Specifically, the letter says the State Department has chosen not to obligate $300 million budgeted by Congress for Taiwan’s military, and the Pentagon has failed to put $1 billion in a program designed to help the island defend itself.
Additionally, the senators criticize the administration’s withholding of $14 billion in weapons sales to Taiwan.
The lawmakers suggest that the withheld support is “critical to the kind of deterrence by denial that will prevent conflict.”
The 2026 National Security Strategy, citing Taiwan’s importance to semiconductor production and control of the South China Sea, says that “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority.”
The GOP senators also criticized the president’s remarks on Taiwan.
“We are concerned by President Trump’s description of Taiwan as ’a very good negotiating chip’ in engagements with Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party,” they wrote.
The senators remind Secretary of State Marco Rubio of his remarks as a Florida Republican senator about the importance of deterring an invasion of Taiwan.
Mr. McConnell chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
The 84-year-old former GOP Senate leader recently returned from an extended rehabilitation after falling unconscious at his home.
Mr. Xi was scheduled to land at Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday.
Sen. Roger Wicker, Mississippi Republican, has urged the president not to be too friendly with his Chinese counterpart.
“Our commander in chief should keep in mind that his guest is a brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator who seeks to dominate his neighbors and whose massive military arsenal is aimed directly at the United States of America,” Mr. Wicker said Tuesday in a speech on the Senate floor.
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