GOP lawmaker defends Pelosi's potential Taiwan plans, says 'weak' Biden shouldn't interfere
Biden and Xi spoke by phone for 2 hours Thursday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A top Republican lawmaker who was invited to join House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a purportedly planned trip to Taiwan said he would accompany her if he could, adding President Biden should not try to interfere with the Californian's prerogative.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told Fox News on Thursday he has other obligations to attend to, but pointed to former Speaker Newt Gingrich's trip to Taipei two decades ago as precedent for such a delegation.
"Any member of Congress should be able to visit Taiwan to show our commitment to that tiny island that's being pressured by the Chinese Communist Party – and particularly the Speaker of the House, no matter who the speaker is," he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The fact that the president of the United States is trying to tell her or any other member to stand down when he's exhibiting so much weakness, as we saw from that phone call [with Chinese leader Xi Jinping] that I just got briefed on – I got the notes from that call where Biden talked about, hey, let's work together and our interests. And, you know, Xi responds, those who play with fire will perish by it."
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President Biden meets with China's President Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., Nov. 15, 2021. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Xi made the cryptic threat in reference to Pelosi's purported plans, as China views Taiwan as part of its country, while President Tsai Ing-wen and the Taiwanese government disagree.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}McCaul told Fox News that as former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee – on which he is now the ranking member – he signed off on U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan in 2019, accusing the Biden administration of "h[o]ld[ing] them up" since taking office.
"How can [Taiwan] defend themselves if we can't send weapons to them?" he asked.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., left, and Taiwan's 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 regarding the purported trip, McCaul said the key to ensuring stability in the Taiwanese Strait is strategic deterrence.
He said the only reason Xi is eyeing any invasion of Taiwan is because the Communist leader sees Biden "projecting weakness" in the same way as Vladimir Putin did when he invaded Ukraine.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"And weakness invites aggression," he continued, pointing to former United Kingdom Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who negotiated – ultimately unsuccessfully – with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler in September 1938 to establish "peace in our time."
That peace was broken by the Nazi regime's invasion of neighboring Poland one year later.