WASHINGTON (Reuters/Xinhua) -- The U.S. Congress on Friday passed a bill with mammoth funding package to the White House despite criticism of high military spending and concern about inflation.
The bill, worth up to 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars, cleared the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday along party lines, a day after the Senate approved it.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday that he “will sign it into law as soon as it reaches my desk.”
Biden later signed a short-term funding bill into law to avert a partial government shutdown ahead of the midnight deadline.
The one-week continuing resolution has given more time for the spending bill, which runs more than 4,000 pages, to be processed for Biden’s signature.
The massive spending package for fiscal year 2023 includes 772.5 billion dollars for non-defense, domestic programs, and 858 billion dollars in defense funding, nearly a 10-percent boost over the previous year.
China expressed anger on Saturday at the new U.S. military authorization law that boosts military aid for Taiwan.
China, which considers Taiwan its own territory, expressed “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” regarding the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It said the $858 billion military spending measure, which authorizes up to $10 billion in security assistance and fast-tracked weapons procurement for Taiwan, contained provisions that “cause serious damage to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”.
China has never renounced using force to bring Taiwan under its control.
The legislation also contained an amendment restricting the Biden administration’s purchases of products using computer chips made by a specific group of Chinese companies.
“The case ignores the facts to exaggerate a ‘China threat’, wantonly interferes in China’s internal affairs and attacks and smears the Chinese Communist Party, which are serious political provocations to China,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry underlined in the statement.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry had earlier commended the U.S. legislation, saying the move showed the importance Washington attached to Taiwan-U.S. ties and strengthening the self-ruled island’s security.
Taipei will discuss the details of the act with Washington and “gradually push forward the budget formulation and actual disbursement of the various Taiwan-friendly provisions,” the ministry added, without elaborating.
Ahead of the G20 Summit in Indonesia last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his U.S. counterpart that the issue of Taipei is China’s “first red line” in bilateral relations, warning that Washington must not cross this line.

‘Electric Planes to Confront China’

The Pentagon continues to move toward rolling out its first-ever electric plane amid a technological war with China, a U.S. media outlet reported.
According to the outlet, the Chinese drone manufacturer DJI currently has an estimated 74% global market share, and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is concerned about a possible scenario where its drones become “a tool for Chinese espionage in U.S. skies”, Sputnik reported.
The outlet noted that the U.S. Air Force (USAF)’s Agility Prime program has pumped more than $100 million into the battery-powered aircraft known as “electric vertical takeoff and landing” (eVTOL) vehicles since 2020.
With a number of U.S. companies developing eVTOLs for civilian use as air taxis and transport planes, the Pentagon reportedly plans to use electric planes in utility roles to ferry people and cargo far from airstrips at a lower cost than conventional helicopters.