House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul recently warned that the United States may have to deploy troops in Taiwan if China decides to invade the island nation.
During an exclusive interview with Fox News, the Texas Republican claimed that “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.”
“Are they prepared to do this? Is Taiwan worth it?” he asked before adding, “I can argue for a lot of reasons why it is.”
McCaul’s statement came after the People’s Liberation Army Navy recently deployed eight warships and 42 planes in the Strait of Taiwan as part of its efforts to intimidate the island country, which China claims as its own territory. China also declared that it would enforce a stop-and-seize regime within the strait.
“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.” McCaul said.
🇺🇸 🇹🇼 🇨🇳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
“We talked about a lot of very constructive ways of deterring, including economic. We talked about several military scenarios, including a blockade, [and] how they would respond to that,” he added.
“Overall, know deterrence is key. We don’t want war. We want peace and deterrence and peace through strength the accomplishes that,” the Republican continued.
Moreover, he also argued that Beijing would likely interfere with Taiwan’s next presidential election than go to war, arguing that “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 in a statement.
“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,” he claimed.
Furthermore, Representative Ami Bera (D-CA), also a member of the Taiwanese meeting delegation in California, also released a striking statement, warning the public about the implications of the increasing heated 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 in the statement.
“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.
