WASHINGTON — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday sent to the floor a major Taiwan security assistance bill, but not before agreeing to dilute some of the legislation’s provisions that would have ordered certain enhancements to U.S. diplomatic engagement with the self-governing island.
In urging the watering down of the diplomacy language, Democrats and a few Republicans said they worried about needlessly provoking China and risking some kind of retaliation when there was little concrete benefit to be had for Taiwan, for example, in making the senior American diplomat in Taiwan a position that requires Senate confirmation, as the original legislation would have done.
After roughly one hour of debate, the committee voted 17-5, to approve, as amended, the Taiwan policy bill from committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J. and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
