Yesterday, Thursday, the US House of Representatives approved a bill paving the way for the defense budget to reach a record level of $858 billion next year, an increase of $45 billion over the budget proposed by President Joe Biden. Military aid and huge arms sales to Taiwan worth $10 billion.
The House of Representatives approved a consensus version of the National Defense Authorization Act - an annual bill that sets policy for the Department of Defense (Pentagon) - by a vote of 350 to 80, far exceeding the two-thirds majority required to pass the bill and send it for a vote in the Senate.
The National Defense Act for the fiscal year 2023 allows for the allocation of $858 billion for military spending, and includes a 4.6% increase in soldiers' salaries, financing purchases of weapons, ships and aircraft, and support for Taiwan and Ukraine.
The Senate is expected to approve the (National Defense Authorization) bill next week, and send it to the White House for President Biden to sign into law.
However, the law does not have the final say on spending, and bills set programs but Congress (both House and Senate) must pass appropriations bills, giving the government legal authority to spend federal funds.
Huge help for Taiwan
Within the US defense budget for 2023, the US House of Representatives also approved a bill providing for military aid and arms sales to Taiwan worth $10 billion.
Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Menendez stressed that this "will greatly enhance the United States' defense partnership with Taiwan."
This text - which is expected to anger Beijing - was reached after long negotiations, and a previous version provided for granting the island the status of a "major ally outside NATO."
The bill indicates a great rapprochement between the United States and Taiwan, at a time when relations between Washington and Beijing have fallen to their lowest levels in decades.
Taiwan separated from China at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
President Xi Jinping has in recent years stepped up diplomatic, economic and military pressure on Taipei.
Last August, China conducted large-scale military exercises around Taiwan, in an unprecedented show of force in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei.
Beijing considers Taiwan - which has a population of about 23 million people - part of China, and threatens to annex it, even by force, if the need arises.