A Russian victory in Ukraine would give a “green light” for an invasion of Taiwan by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which justifies US aid, former US vice president Mike Pence said on Tuesday.
Pence, who is seeking the Republican nomination for next year’s US presidential election, was speaking at the first event in a series of conversations with Republican candidates cohosted by The Associated Press and the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service in Washington.
The contrast between Pence and some other Republicans has been particularly stark on Ukraine.
Photo: AP
Many Republican voters oppose sending more military aid to Kyiv and Pence is polling in single digits.
Helping Ukraine is also the best way to check China’s ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.
“I really do believe that if Russia overruns Ukraine, that’ll give a green light to China to move against Taiwan,” he said. “And quite frankly, if we don’t check the efforts by authoritarian regimes to redraw international lines by force, the rest of the 21st century could look a lot like the first half of the 20th century.”
Pence has accused rivals for the Republican nomination, including former US president Donald Trump, of abandoning US allies.
The only way to keep the US safe is by engaging with the world, he said.
“America is the leader of the free world,” he said. “If we’re not leading the free world, the free world is not being led.”
Pence has previously cast China as a major threat.
In a speech last month at the Hudson Institute think tank in the US capital, he called Beijing “the greatest strategic and economic threat to the United States of America in the 21st century” and said it was at risk of becoming an “evil empire.”
In response, the US should work to bolster Taiwan’s defense capabilities to stave off any threat, he said.
He also wants to ban China from purchasing new US farmland and has called to move high-tech manufacturing out of the country and to ban TikTok.
Asked on Tuesday if it was realistic to ask tens of millions of young people to stop using the app, Pence said: “I don’t know about realistic, but it’s the right idea.”
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
RSS