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While Trump's public comments on China have softened over the past few weeks in hopes of maintaining a fragile truce between the two nations, Congress is still aggressively targeting China with legislation. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), released on December 9, includes provisions to scrutinize American investments in China that could help develop technologies to boost Chinese military power. The NDAA also reaffirms the US's support for the self-governing island of Taiwan that Beijing claims as its own and has recently claimed it will take by force if necessary. Taiwan has been self-governing since 1949, and does not consider itself part of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Taiwan has its own military, currency, constitution, legal system, and democratically elected government, none of which are controlled by the PRC. Still, China continues to assert its claim that Taiwan is Chinese territory.
China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this.
-Liu Pengyu, Chinese embassy spokesperson
The NDAA
The proposed bill, which still needs to pass through the Senate, will authorize $900 billion in additional funds for military programs and will work to “rebalance America's economic relationship with China,” a sign that Trump is most likely interested in a mutually beneficial economic relationship with China, as opposed to the Biden administration, which cast China as a strategic threat. Trump proved his dedication to repairing some of the fractured trade routes between the two nations – allowing US company Nvidia to sell an advanced type of computer chip to China, sparking concern from some tech experts. The Chinese embassy has renounced the bill. “
The bill has kept playing up the ‘China threat' narrative, trumpeting for military support to Taiwan, abusing state power to go after Chinese economic development, limiting trade, economic and people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S., undermining China's sovereignty, security and development interests and disrupting efforts of the two sides in stabilizing bilateral relations,
-Liu Pengyu
US support for Taiwan
China is especially taking issue with the US's support for Taiwan, a country they have claimed to be Chinese-owned since the 1940s, when Chinese Nationalists fled to the island after losing the civil war to the Communist Party of China. Taiwan has never officially declared independence, maintaining that there is no need for a formal declaration because the “Republic of China is already a sovereign, independent country” and is “not subordinate to each other”. Taiwan has its own military, currency, constitution, legal system, and democratically elected government, effectively making it a sovereign state even without a formal declaration.
The NDAA proposes to allocate an additional $700 million for Taiwan-related security cooperation, bringing the total from $300 million to $1 billion. Another provision supports Taiwan's bid to join the International Monetary Fund, which would provide the self-governing island with financial protection from China. The bill is carefully toeing the line with Beijing, with Trump not wanting to burn bridges while enforcing that the US is the stronger nation in negotiation. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has urged Trump to handle the Taiwan issue “with prudence,” as Beijing considers its claim over Taiwan a core interest.
Recently, China threatened military action against any country attempting to interfere on behalf of Taiwan. On December 8, China locked a ‘radar-lock' onto Japanese F-15 fighter jets that were examining whether a Chinese vessel was breaching Japanese territory. After the incident, Australia came forward to step up cooperation with Japan, with Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles stating, “The events last night are concerning, and Australia has also experienced concerning events in interactions [with China],” and Australia would be willing to “assert the rules-based order in this region.” Marles also reinforced Australia's support of an independent Taiwan, stating, “We do not want to see any change to the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.” The two countries also agreed to set up a ‘Framework for Strategic Defense Coordination', to consult on intelligence gathering, industry, technology, cyber and missile defense.
US investments in China
US lawmakers have been working for years to curb investments in Chinese technologies, specifically in sectors that can be adapted to benefit military technologies like data processing and artificial intelligence. In December 2024, Elon Musk threw a wrench into those plans when he opposed a spending bill that would have placed restrictions on sales made by US companies to Chinese manufacturers. Musk has multiple business ventures in China, including a Tesla gigafactory in Shanghai. Musk is heavily interested in the country as a manufacturing route.
