Rep. Elise Stefanik: Washington to supply arms to Taiwan in the face of Beijing’s threats

“China is watching. They’re watching the U.S. foreign policy when it comes to the war in Ukraine,” Stefanik told NTD’s “Capitol Report” program in a recent interview. “I think we need to be thinking very carefully about what that means for the future of Taiwan.

President Joe Biden must not repeat the mistake he made with regard to Ukraine, Stefanik said,

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) says that, in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Washington has an urgent obligation to provide arms to Taiwan.

“One of the lessons that—frankly, Republicans would have never let this happen, but Joe Biden let happen—was they didn’t get the weapons, munitions, in early enough to Ukraine,” she added.

“We need to be arming Taiwan now,” Stefanik said. “We need to be getting the support to Taiwan now, both as a deterrence but also making sure that they are armed to self defend.”

Taiwan has been on high alert since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, apprehensive about China's military intervention to seize Taiwan's sovereignty. Beijing may now consider attacking Taiwan under its new Sino-Russian partnership, which was announced three weeks prior to the invasion of Ukraine.

Although Beijing has formally declared neutrality between Russia and Ukraine, it has sided with Moscow on U.N. votes and has amplified Russian justifications for the conflict.

Taipei and Washington are not currently formal allies, and Washington has maintained a policy of "strategic ambiguity." This means the United States is deliberately vague on whether it would defend Taiwan. Among the criticisms Stefanik leveled at Biden was failure to use "all the instruments at his disposal" to confront the CCP, which he used to characterize his March 24 telephone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

28 March 2022