GOP lawmaker defends potential Pelosi Taiwan plans, says ‘weak’ Biden shouldn’t interfere

A senior Republican lawmaker who has been asked to join Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on a supposedly planned trip to Taiwan said he would accompany her if he could, adding that President Biden should not try to interfere with California prerogative.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told Fox News on Thursday he had other obligations to meet, but pointed to former President Newt Gingrich’s trip to Taipei two decades ago as a precedent for such a delegation.

“Any member of Congress should be able to travel to Taiwan to show our commitment to this small island that is under pressure from the Chinese Communist Party – and especially the Speaker of the House, whoever that is,” he said. .

“The fact that the President of the United States is trying to tell her or any other member to stand down when he is showing such weakness, as we saw in that phone call [with Chinese leader Xi Jinping] which I was just made aware of – I got the notes of this call where Biden talked about, hey, let’s work together and our interests. And, you know, Xi replies, those who play with fire will perish.”

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Xi made the cryptic threat in reference to Pelosi’s alleged plans, as China considers Taiwan part of its country, while President Tsai Ing-wen and the Taiwanese government disagree.

McCaul told Fox News that as former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee – of which he is now the most senior member – he endorsed US arms sales to Taiwan in 2019, blaming the Biden administration of “h[o]ld[ing] them” since taking office.

“How can [Taiwan] defend themselves if we can’t send them weapons?” he asked.

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Senator Lindsey Graham, R.S.C., left, and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, right, pose for a photo during a meeting at the presidential office in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, April 15, 2022.
((Taiwan Presidential Office via AP))

With Xi’s verbal aggression over the alleged trip, McCaul said the key to ensuring stability in the Taiwan Strait is strategic deterrence.

He said the only reason Xi is considering an invasion of Taiwan is because the communist leader sees Biden “projecting weakness” the same way Vladimir Putin did when he invaded Ukraine.

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“And weakness invites aggression,” he continued, pointing to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who negotiated – ultimately unsuccessfully – with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler in September 1938 to establish “peace in our time”.

This peace was broken by the invasion of neighboring Poland by the Nazi regime a year later.