Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives on Saturday quickly passed two key aid bills to counter China and bolster Taiwan while also threatening a ban on TikTok if it fails to divest from Beijing.

Voting on major bills on Ukraine and Israel was yet to come.

Lawmakers began voting on the foreign aid and arms bills, totaling some $95 billion, at 1:00 pm (1700 GMT), and embattled Republican Speaker Mike Johnson was forced to rely on Democratic votes for passage.

The bills are the product of months of acrimonious negotiations, pressure from US allies and repeated pleas for assistance from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Spending bills cost the last Republican speaker of the House his job, and funding for Ukraine has been at the heart of the partisan squabbling.

At the request of President Joe Biden, some $8 billion would be used to counter China through investment in submarine infrastructure and boosting competition with Beijing on projects built in developing countries.

Several billion dollars would be devoted to weapons for Taiwan, the self-ruled island that is claimed by China.