Taiwan's navy chief, Tang Hua, will visit the United States from next week to attend a military ceremony and discuss how to boost bilateral naval cooperation as China raises threats toward the island, six people briefed on the trip said.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and Taiwan Navy Commander Tang Hua attend the delivery ceremony of six made-in-Taiwan Tuo Chiang-class corvettes at a port in Yilan.

While Taiwan and the United States have a close relationship, it is unofficial, as Washington formally recognises China, not the democratically governed island that Beijing claims as its own territory. Taiwan rejects China's territorial claims.

The six security sources said Tang would visit Hawaii, home of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, for a Pacific Fleet change-of-command ceremony. Three of them said Tang was then expected to attend the April 8-10 Sea-Air-Space conference near Washington and that talks were under way to arrange a meeting with the U.S. chief of naval operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti.

The sources spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity given the trip's sensitivity.

Taiwan's navy and the Pentagon declined to comment.

China's defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment. China's foreign ministry said it firmly opposed "military collusion" between the United States and Taiwan and that Washington should "refrain from sending out any erroneous signal to the forces of secession for the independence of Taiwan".

Unlike visits to the U.S. by senior officials from allies like Japan and Britain, conducted openly, those of Taiwanese officials, especially military, are kept low key and often not officially confirmed.

Washington and Taipei have had no official diplomatic or military relationship since 1979, when the U.S. switched recognition to Beijing, though the United States is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

China has not renounced the use of force to take Taiwan, where the defeated Republic of China government fled in 1949 after it lost China's civil war to Mao Zedong's Communists, who established the People's Republic of China.

Taiwan's navy is dwarfed by that of China, which is adding nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers. Under a modernisation effort President Tsai Ing-wen has overseen, Taiwan is developing its own submarines, the first unveiled last year.

Without fanfare Taiwan and the U.S. have expanded their military cooperation since Tsai took office in 2016, especially since China began ramping up military pressure over the past four years. Beijing now regularly sends fighter jets over the median line of the Taiwan Strait that once served as an unofficial barrier.

Previous U.S. trips by senior Taiwan officers to the United States have included then-navy chief Lee Hsi-ming in 2015 and Deputy Defence Minister Hsu Yen-pu, who last year attended a Taiwan-U.S. defence industry conference in Virginia.

Taiwan typically holds annual security talks in the United States, which neither government officially confirms and which last year were attended by Taiwan's foreign minister and the head of its National Security Council, according to Taiwanese media.

Tang's visit, two sources said, is part of a U.S. effort, called the Joint Island Defence Concept, to coordinate with Taiwan, Japan and others to counter China's armed forces within the "first island chain" - a string enclosing China's coastal seas that connects Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo, an island split between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Taiwan and the U.S. are trying to line up a Tang-Franchetti meeting, which has not been confirmed, said one source, a U.S. official.

Tang on Tuesday accompanied Tsai to a navy base on Taiwan's east coast for a handover ceremony for two new Tuo Chiang-class corvette warships, which Taiwan's navy calls "carrier killers" for their high manoeuvrability, stealthiness and anti-ship missiles.

Congress funds Taiwan military support as foreign aid bill stalls

Congress funded cash assistance for Taipei’s military while directing the State Department and Pentagon to “prioritize the delivery of defense articles and services for Taiwan.”

The fiscal 2024 State Department spending bill Congress passed on Saturday includes $300 million in Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, for Taiwan. The funding to buy more military equipment comes more than a year after Congress first authorized the cash assistance for Taipei. But the $300 million falls far short of the cumulative $4 billion in Taiwan military assistance in the foreign aid bill that remains stalled in the House.

“It provides new tools to use to try and contribute to the deterrence effort and get weapons to Taiwan more quickly and in larger quantities,” Bonnie Glaser, the managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program, told Defense News. “Another benefit of it is that it signals to the people of Taiwan that the United States prioritizes their defense and is willing to put our money where our mouth is.”

The $300 million figure represents a halfway point between House appropriators – who sought $500 million in Taiwan FMF – and their Senate counterparts who only wanted $113 million.

Taiwan must spend most of that $300 million in FMF grants or loans to procure weapons from U.S. defense contractors but could use $45 million of that money to purchase equipment and services on-island – a privilege called offshore procurement that only Israel has enjoyed so far.

Of the 25-plus countries that receive FMF yearly, the largest recipients are Israel with an annual $3.3 billion, Egypt with an annual $1.3 billion and Jordan with an annual $425 million. The State Department has asked for $100 million in Taiwan FMF as part of its FY25 budget request. It provided Taiwan with $55 million in FMF last year from a portion of Egypt aid frozen over human rights concerns.

Appropriators initially were wary of allocating large FMF sums for Taiwan given pressures on the State Department budget and the relative wealth of the island, whose GDP came in at an estimated $800 billion in FY23.

Glaser noted that Taiwan has increased its defense spending consecutively over the past several years and now spends 2.6% of its GDP on defense, “which is still not enough given the nature of the threat they face.”

The U.S. hopes that rushing an influx of weapons into Taiwan will help deter a potential Chinese invasion. China considers Taiwan to be a rogue province and has threatened to take it by force if necessary. President Xi Jinping has set 2027 – the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army – as the date he hopes the Chinese military will have the capabilities to take Taiwan.

“Yes, it’s our taxpayer money and they should be paying for more themselves, but there’s also some value in signaling that this is a priority for the United States,” said Glaser. “It does help to boost the determination of the Taiwanese to defend themselves because they know that the United States cares about their defense.”

Another $4 billion

The Taiwan FMF in the FY24 State Department spending bill pales in comparison to the $3.9 billion in additional military assistance for Taipei that the Senate’s foreign aid bill. The Senate in February passed the bipartisan bill, which primarily provides $60 billion in economic and security aid to Ukraine and another $14 billion in military aid to Israel, in a 70-29 vote.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has so far refused to put it on the floor amid opposition to the Ukraine aid from former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and the right-flank of his caucus. Meanwhile, some progressive Democrats oppose the additional Israel aid in the bill amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Johnson has told Republican defense hawks the House will hold foreign aid votes in April after it returns from its two-week recess, though it will not necessarily take up the bipartisan Senate bill, which hews closely to President Joe Biden’s request.

The Senate bill includes an additional $2 billion in Taiwan FMF and another $1.9 billion that would allow the Defense Department to rush weapons to Taipei from U.S. stockpiles and replenish it.

Using Presidential Drawdown Authority from U.S. stockpiles would allow the U.S. to move materiel into Taiwan faster than through FMF-funded arms sales. The Biden administration has primarily armed Ukraine through drawdowns of U.S. stockpiles since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

“That makes it easier to deliver something if we already have it in our own stockpiles, and we can just give it to Taiwan,” said Glaser. “That seems to cut through quite a bit of the red tape that might be involved in using other methods.”

Lawmakers estimate that there is a roughly $19 billion backlog in U.S. arms sales to Taiwan due to a confluence of issues, including industrial base constraints, a sometimes slow pace of contracting and acquisition and a medley of lengthy technology and security reviews in the Foreign Military Sales process.

How Taiwan could depend on one of the cheapest naval tactics to stop a Chinese invasion

• Naval mines could be a cheap but useful addition to Taiwan's defenses.

• Experts have argued that for Taiwan to develop a "porcupine" strategy, and mines could be key.

• But they wouldn't be a catch-all defense, and there are many difficulties to navigate when deploying mines.

Facing an aggressive China that is willing to use force to achieve the unification it has sought for decades, Taiwan needs strong strategies to deter, and if it comes to fighting, defend.

An element of that strong defense, experts argue, could be one of the cheapest naval tactics: sea mines. The under-the-water, hidden explosives could be key to derailing an amphibious assault and waging asymmetric warfare against China's superior navy.

Experts say that naval mines could be very useful for stopping China's People's Liberation Army Navy or, at the very least, creating major headaches during an invasion.

"Strategically placed naval mines would allow Taiwan to leverage its natural geographic advantages to strengthen deterrence by denial and build a formidable defense in depth," experts and analysts wrote in a post for War on the Rocks earlier this month.

"Exploiting Taiwan's shallow waters and treacherous coastline, mines employed at different water depths and locations would offer Taiwan a low-cost and effective means to delay, disrupt, and degrade Chinese forces," Jonathan Dorsey, Kelly Grieco, and Jennifer Kavanagh said.

Mines force Chinese ships to contend with the explosive threat before pushing forward. Vessels like minesweepers could be sent out to clear the mines, but that effort would take time and could delay and hinder China's assault plans.

Mines wouldn't solve all Taiwan's problems, but as a part of a larger "porcupine" strategy, which US officials and experts have spoken to in the past, it could be quite effective.

The idea of a "porcupine" defense could include a "large number of small things," meaning asymmetric platforms that, when mixed with high-cost joint force systems such as advanced fighter jets and drones, provide effective deterrence and defense.

In the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, "the goal should be to provide critical time for more US firepower to be brought to bear, and to reduce the number of PLA forces that need to be either targeted en route or defeated at the water's edge," Scott Savitz, a RAND senior engineer, wrote last year. "Naval mines are such a capability, complementing various other weapons."

Sea mines have long been a useful way of denying enemy access to an area. As the three experts wrote in their War on the Rocks commentary, nine mines blocked French warships from the harbor of Tamsui in northern Taiwan in October 1884 during the Sino-French War.

They were commonly used in the World Wars and posed major threats to warships.

More recently, sea mines have seen heavy use in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea during the war in the Ukraine, damaging and destroying ships and making the already dangerous waters even more precarious. Both Ukraine and Russia have used these weapons, which pose a risk not just to military operations but civilian commercial activities.

That speaks to larger problems naval mines pose. While they can be effective deterrence, they can also present a threat to their surrounding environment and civilians, and could be difficult to clear. They can also come loose in a storm or rough waters and drift long distances, leading to unexpected complications.

For Taiwan, another problem here is procuring and deploying the mines. It would take a major effort to prioritize such an effort and it's unclear how China would react if such activities were observed.

In 2022, Taiwan added minelaying ships to its fleet as tools to bolster its defense. At the time, per the AP, Lt. Hsu Shu-wei of the Second Mining Operations Squadron said the weapons were to "build up our asymmetric warfare power" and stop "the enemy from getting on our island."

But, additional capabilities would be required to fully employ a naval mine defense.

"Though mines would significantly strengthen Taiwan's deterrence and defense, Taipei has not made the necessary preparations," Dorsey, Grieco, and Kavanagh said in their commentary, stressing that "investing in the necessary capabilities and improving readiness to carry out mining operations" should be "top priorities for Taiwan."