Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) sent a letter to Pentagon Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday stating that the Pentagon is sending packages of expired and unusable military equipment to Taiwan, an unofficial ally of the United States. I asked him to explain the revelation in September that he had sent it. In some cases, mold may grow.
In September, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) said an audit found the Pentagon delivered “unusable and poorly packaged equipment and ammunition” to Taiwan. Some of the equipment pallets contained equipment that was “soaked and covered in mold.” Others included disorganized packages containing expired or non-conforming ammunition, making it difficult for the Taiwanese to fully understand what the Pentagon was sending them.
Correcting the mistake cost more than $700,000 in taxpayer funds, the regulator said.
The shipment reportedly took place between November 2023 and March 2024. President Joe Biden met with Chinese Communist Party dictator Xi Jinping (who pretends Taiwan is Communist Party territory and regularly threatens to invade it) in November 2023, when the shipment began. According to China's Foreign Ministry at the time, one of the biggest issues Mr. Xi raised at the meeting was pressuring Mr. Biden “to stop supplying arms to Taiwan.”
In a letter to Secretary Austin, Sen. Ernst described the situation as an “embarrassing fiasco” and said he is committed to ensuring it is not repeated so as not to undermine international confidence in the U.S. military. demanded that Austin reveal what the Pentagon was doing. Sen. Ernst is also asking the Pentagon for details on where exactly the $730,000 to compensate for the error came from.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have uncovered millions of dollars in questionable Chinese labs and gifted the Taliban with cutting-edge weapons, but all they can manage for Taiwan is outdated ammunition and moldy Just the equipment that grew,” Sen. Ernst told Breitbart News in a statement regarding the need for the letter. To Austin.
“Delivering damaged military aid to critical partners is sadly part of a dangerous pattern of White House incompetence that is pushing the world to the brink and endangering U.S. national security.” ” she added. “We cannot afford another four years of Kamala Harris emboldening our enemies while alienating our key partners and allies.”
In a letter obtained by Breitbart News, Sen. Ernst similarly criticized the Biden-Harris administration's “shortcomings” in dealing with the Chinese threat to the United States and its failed foreign policy overall.
“This embarrassing debacle has exposed the flaws in the Biden-Harris administration's China strategy,” the senator said, “damaging relationships with key regional partners, weakening deterrence against China, and “You're wasting millions of tax dollars.”
The failure that occurred with the moldy shipment to Taiwan “is critical not only to Taiwan's important role as a critical security partner, but also to other U.S. allies and other countries that depend on timely and reliable products.” “This is particularly concerning because it can affect the trust of partners,” she continued. defensive support. ”
“If these problems persist, they could undermine confidence in America's defense commitments globally and undermine the security relationships that the United States has worked to strengthen,” he warned. “This situation not only poses operational risks to Taiwan, but also broader strategic risks to U.S. credibility.”
Sen. Ernst asked Austin to explain “what steps he is taking to clarify the roles and responsibilities of all involved” to avoid similar embarrassment and They also asked for further information about other equipment stored near the exposed bulletproof vest. Usable or similarly damaged.
The Biden-Harris administration maintains a chaotic policy toward Taiwan, a sovereign democracy seeking alliance with the United States, but since the era of President Jimmy Carter, Washington has not recognized Taiwan as a country. Not yet. Biden himself has incited much of the confusion by repeatedly falsely claiming that the United States was committed to defending Taiwan from Chinese attack, which led to the White House saying Biden could single-handedly reverse decades of U.S. He has repeatedly made it clear that he has not rewritten the system. Taiwan policy.
At an event with CNN in October 2021, Biden said he would defend Taiwan if China attacked because “we have a commitment to do that,” but he did not provide details. In reality, no such promise existed, and the White House retracted those comments. Biden had made similar claims at least four times by September 2022, and White House officials had issued similar denials.
Mr. Biden's insistence on quasi-treaty obligations toward Taiwan coincided with the president's attempts to win over Mr. Xi, boasting of a friendly relationship that includes dozens of direct meetings with the genocidal dictator.
“I was on the Tibetan plateau with Xi Jinping. I traveled 17,000 miles with him. I talked to him and it started when I was vice president and he was vice president. “I knew he would be my successor,'' Biden boasted in 2023.
Mr. Xi reached a peak in his threats of violence against Taiwan in 2019, when he vowed that supporters of Taiwan's sovereignty would have their “bones crushed to pieces,” but he continues to regularly threaten Taiwan. Last week, shortly after the People's Liberation Army orchestrated a threatening war game to surround Taiwan, Mr. Xi appeared in Fujian province across the Strait from Taiwan.
