A US congressional committee on Thursday questioned the US Navy over what it called “alarming delays” in weapons deliveries to Taiwan, asking why production sometimes languished for months or years after purchasing deals were signed.

Time was running out to deter military action by China toward Taiwan, US Representative Mike Gallagher, chair of the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and US Representative Young Kim, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo Pacific, said in the letter to US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro.