Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has issued a warning that if China invades Taiwan, the US may be forced to send soldiers there.
“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.”
Eight warships and 42 aircraft from the People’s Liberation Army Navy recently entered the Strait of Taiwan to threaten the island nation, which China claims as its own territory. Taiwan retorted that it would not comply with China’s announcement to enforce a stop-and-seize policy across the Taiwan Strait. China likewise made the announcement.
🇺🇸 🇹🇼 🇨🇳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
McCaul said, “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. In fact, I think it galvanizes the United States’ support for Taiwan. We talked about a lot of very constructive ways of deterring, including economics. We talked about several military scenarios, including a blockade, [and] how they would respond to that. Overall, knowing deterrence is key. We don’t want war. We want peace and deterrence and peace through strength that accomplishes that.”
McCaul asserted that Beijing would probably choose to meddle in Taiwan’s upcoming presidential election over starting a conflict since it would be far simpler for them to do so without firing a shot.
It was an honor to meet Vice President Lai.
— Michael McCaul (@RepMcCaul) April 7, 2023
My colleagues and I are proud to be visiting Taiwan, and we will not be intimidated by CCP aggression. pic.twitter.com/XCQAl3VwmQ
The consequences of rising relations with China were also discussed by Representative Ami Bera (D-CA), who was also a member of the Taiwanese meeting delegation in California.
“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. 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 said.
Rep. French Hill (R-AZ) also stated that a military conflict with China would have a negative effect on the world economy.
