00:00The U.S. Congress has issued a report on Taiwan's defense issues, highlighting the increasing
00:05threat posed by China.
00:07The Congressional Research Service report looked at both internal and external challenges,
00:12including a rise in regional tensions, domestic political debates over defense spending, and
00:17gray zone tactics used by Beijing.
00:20The report indicates strong congressional support for Taiwan, but notes potential issues
00:24with U.S. arms sales.
00:25Currently, a $14 billion U.S. arms package approved by Congress is awaiting signature
00:31by the Trump administration.
00:34For more on this report, our reporter Larry Siano spoke with Bryce Barros from the Institute
00:39for National Defense and Security Research.
00:43Can you explain a little bit more about what a CRS report is and what function it has?
00:47So as a former Senate National Security Advisor, if there was an issue that my senator asked
00:53me to look into or someone on our team needed to look into related to my portfolio of defense,
00:58foreign affairs, national security, whatever, you could reach out to them directly and say,
01:02hey, I'm looking to have an answer about statistics related to this.
01:08And their whole purpose is to be as nonpartisan as possible.
01:11So I really want to emphasize that, right?
01:13I mean, given how polarized Congress is right now and given the sort of like political views
01:18that you have on both sides of the aisle in the United States.
01:20The report also included comments from President Trump and from members of his administration
01:25about arms sales to Taiwan.
01:27What do you think this implies about where Congress stands on the issue versus where
01:30the administration stands on the issue?
01:31I wouldn't necessarily say that the comments per se jab at the Trump administration.
01:35So I can't speak to exactly what their motivations might be.
01:39But what I can say is what it could be is a lack of transparency from the Trump administration.
01:45So if CRS use those quotes per se towards that part of the report, my sort of educated guess
01:55is there might be a lack of transparency from the Trump administration when members of Congress
02:00are seeking oversight and CRS might only have access to those public comments.
02:06This report is not a policy document to not make recommendations.
02:08But is there anything moving forward that you're keeping an eye on that might change in light
02:12of what this report said?
02:13I think the Trump administration needs to be more willing to share information to Congress.
02:20There's a lot of back and forth.
02:21We're trying to figure out what can be done to sort of lessen the gap.
02:26The very large gap of arms sales that have already been approved, done, money transferred
02:32and whatnot to deliver arms in a succinct manner.
02:35Hung Sao, or rather Secretary of the Navy Hung Sao's comments get to the heart of that.
02:41But I get the sense that there might be a desire within Congress to want to continue to come up
02:46with ways to push for faster delivery around arms sales and hold large defense primes accountable,
02:55as well as parts of the Pentagon and the State Department,
02:58specifically the Defense Security Cooperation Agency under the Pentagon,
03:03to make those arms deliveries move faster.
03:06So I think that's a thing to keep an eye out for based on the report.
03:11That was defense analyst Bryce Barros from INDSR.
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