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The ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee suggested Friday that China will launch an invasion of Taiwan sometime after next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing.
“I do think after the Olympics — China has gotten so provocative, so aggressive in the South China Sea, that you are going to see the CCP, the [Chinese] Communist Party invading Taiwan,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told reporters on a conference call.
McCaul argued further that President Biden’s botched messaging on the ongoing Ukraine crisis sent a signal of weakness to America’s adversaries, which McCaul believes they will look to exploit.
“I would say [Jimmy] Carter’s the worst president in my life,” McCaul said. “But this guy really takes the cake, and I’ve never seen, in one year, our standing on the world stage diminish so rapidly and quickly to the detriment of our national security.”
McCaul’s predicted move by China would not be without precedent. In 2014, Russia began moving regular troops and special forces into Crimea on the final weekend of that year’s Winter Games, which it hosted in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. It completed the annexation of the Ukrainian region weeks later.
Biden has been heavily criticized for suggesting during his White House news conference Wednesday that the Western response to a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be less severe if it was a “minor incursion.” That statement alarmed Ukrainians who fear the American president inadvertently revealed he would turn a blind eye to military action.
The White House repeatedly attempted to walk back Biden’s remarks, culminating in the president saying Thursday that “if any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion. It will be met with [a] severe and coordinated economic response.”
But critics like McCaul argue that the damage has already been done.
“My prediction is that you’re going to see a Russia invading Ukraine in the next month,” he said, adding that “[Chinese President] Xi is watching what happens in Ukraine, they also watched what happened with Afghanistan, and don’t think for a minute that didn’t have an impact on their calculus.
“Putin’s always wanted the Ukraine back, he wants the Soviet empire to reclaim the throne,” McCaul added. “Xi wants Imperial China and Taiwan is a part of that. So they see this, because of the weakness, as an opportunity to do this.”
McCaul called on the American military to ramp up its presence in the region “to show China we’re serious.”
“We need to arm Taiwan with more weapons, and I signed off on a lot of those sales, and I think also we need to establish better economic, trade relationships in the region to counter the Belt and Road Initiative that China, unfortunately, has been so successful at,” he said.
Earlier this week, the guided missile destroyer USS Benfold made its way through two disputed island chains in the South China Sea on a so-called freedom-of-navigation patrol, prompting a protest from Beijing.
“We solemnly demand that the US side immediately stop such provocative actions, otherwise it will bear the serious consequences of unforeseen events,” read a statement from China’s Southern Theatre Command on Thursday.
In response, the Navy asserted that the Benfold’s mission was conducted “in accordance with international law” and “reflects our commitment to uphold freedom of navigation and lawful uses of the sea as a principle.”
“The United States is defending every nation’s right to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, as USS Benfold did this week,” a statement read. “Nothing PRC [People’s Republic of China] says otherwise will deter us.”
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