House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul is warning that the US may have to send troops to Taiwan should China invade the island nation.
“If communist China invaded Taiwan, it would certainly be on the table and something that would be discussed by Congress and with the American people,” the Texas Republican told Fox News.
“Are they prepared to do this? Is Taiwan worth it?” he asked. “I can argue for a lot of reasons why it is.”
Sending US troops to Taiwan is “on the table,” says Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US Michael McCaul pic.twitter.com/b5EDQ7d3Rr
— AZ (@AZgeopolitics) April 8, 2023
The People’s Liberation Army Navy recently sent eight warships and 42 planes into the Strait of Taiwan to intimidate the island country, which China claims as its own territory. China also announced it would be enforcing a stop-and-seize regime within the strait, while Taiwan countered that it would not comply.
“These are intimidation tactics and saber-rattling, in my judgment, only firm up our resolve against the Chinese Communist Party. It has no deterrent effect on us,” McCaul said. “In fact, I think it galvanizes the United States’ support for Taiwan.”
“We talked about a lot of very constructive ways of deterring, including economic,” McCaul added. “We talked about several military scenarios, including a blockade, [and] how they would respond to that.”
“Overall, know deterrence is key,” he continued. “We don’t want war. We want peace and deterrence and peace through strength the accomplishes that.”
It was an honor to meet Vice President Lai.
My colleagues and I are proud to be visiting Taiwan, and we will not be intimidated by CCP aggression. pic.twitter.com/XCQAl3VwmQ
— Michael McCaul (@RepMcCaul) April 7, 2023
McCaul argued that Beijing would likely prefer to interfere with Taiwan’s next presidential election than go to war, saying “it’ll be a lot easier for them to influence an election without a shot fired than it would be to go to war.”
“I would argue freedom and democracy is worth supporting Taiwan over, but if that doesn’t persuade people, 90% of the advanced semiconductor capabilities for the world in manufacturing exist right here in Taiwan,” McCaul said.
“If that is compromised in any way – it’s a strategic asset – a national security asset, [and] if that is taken by invasion or it’s broken, it will send this globe into a world of hurt and a global depression.”
Representative Ami Bera (D-CA), also a member of the Taiwanese meeting delegation in California also warned about the implications of escalating tensions with China.
“I think it’s very difficult to ask countries in Asia to be verbally out there saying, ‘This is what we do’ [in the event of an invasion],” Bera said.
“But if you think about the two countries we visited prior to coming to Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, they’ve both experienced economic retaliation in South Korea for the deployment of THAAD batteries in Japan in the past getting their supplies of critical rare earth elements getting cut off,” Bera added.
Rep. French Hill (R-AZ) added that a military confrontation with China would severely impact the global economy.
“You have, for the first time, an Indo-Pacific strategy in Korea, a national security strategy,” Hill said. “They’ve not had that before. They’ve been concerned principally only about North Korea and the North Asia region, but in that Indo-Pacific regional national security strategy, [there’s] willingness to participate.”
“And if you don’t like inflation now, wait until you have a — 60% of global trade passes through the strait between here, but 80 miles between China and Taiwan, it’s not just a military issue,” Hill added. “It’s a way-of-life issue in the United States. And that’s why deterrence is so important.”
One might counter this is the price of overreliance on trade with an aggressive communist nation like China. If the United States relied more on itself, it would improve its national security position in the world.
