Is Kevin McCarthy Causing Another Crisis Between China And Taiwan?
Created: 01/07/2023 10:48 am
By: Sven Hauberg
After Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taipei, the Taiwan crisis escalated in the summer.
Her successor also wants to visit the island.
Will China Respond With Military Maneuvers Again?
This article was first published on December 3, 2022. We are republishing the text in a slightly updated form for the given occasion.
Munich/Beijing/Washington – “China lied.
Millions have died.” This quote does not come from ex-US President Donald Trump, who was only too happy to distract attention from his own failure in the corona pandemic and preferred to blame Beijing for the high number of deaths in the USA.
But by Kevin McCarthy, Republican like Trump and member of the US House of Representatives for 16 years.
If you scroll through McCarthy's Twitter feed, you will find many such sentences.
"One of the greatest threats to America's future is China," writes the 57-year-old, for example, or: "You can't trust China - that's that."
Kevin McCarthy, father of two, campaigned against abortion rights and universal marriage and denied climate change for years.
Very early on he was a supporter of Donald Trump.
With the outbreak of the corona pandemic, McCarthy began to hit Trump-style against the government in Beijing, which he blamed for the “Chinese corona virus”.
He later shared Trump's tale of the allegedly stolen election victory.
Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives after several attempts on Saturday.
© Olivier Douliery/AFP
So far, McCarthy's verbal jabs at China have mostly gone unheard, both in Washington and in Beijing.
He wasn't important enough.
But that is likely to change now that the politician from Bakersfield, California, was elected Chairman of the US House of Representatives on January 7th.
In the recent midterm elections, the Republicans won the majority of seats in the US House of Representatives, McCarthy is now succeeding Nancy Pelosi, the previous House of Representatives.
McCarthy is planning a trip to Taiwan - an answer from China is certain
Pelosi sparked the biggest Sino-US crisis in decades last August when she spent a day and night visiting Taiwan — the democratically-ruled island nation and US ally that Beijing claims.
China responded to the flying visit with extensive military maneuvers in the region and ended talks with the US on issues such as climate change and trade issues.
It was only with the meeting between US President Joe Biden and China's head of state Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Bali that relations between the two superpowers eased again.
However, McCarthy could soon cause new upsets between Beijing and Washington.
Because the Republican announced that he wanted to travel to Taiwan, just like Pelosi.
"As Speaker of the House, I would be very happy to do that," McCarthy told The
Wall Street Journal
in late July .
Even then it was foreseeable that the Republicans would achieve a majority in the House of Representatives.
A response from China is certain if McCarthy actually steps off the plane in Taipei next year.
"Beijing cannot afford to do nothing and will no doubt use any visit as an excuse for further missile testing," Andrew Small of the German Marshall Fund, a US think tank,
told IPPEN.MEDIA's Frankfurter Rundschau.
China and Taiwan: That's what the conflict is about
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However, the China expert expects Beijing to react less drastically than during Pelosi's visit in the summer.
Because while China was also angry that Biden did not prevent the visit of his Democratic party friend Pelosi, this argument does not apply to Republican McCarthy.
"To a certain extent, China sees that," Small said.
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The US wants to help Taiwan in a Chinese attack - but how?
Ultimately, however, the general political climate will probably decide whether Beijing will fire rockets near Taiwan again during McCarthy's visit to Taipei.
And there are currently no signs of relaxation, even if the G20 meeting between Xi and Biden was able to reopen some frozen communication channels.
Because if there's one thing that unites Republicans and Democrats, it's their support for Taiwan -- and a tough stance on Beijing.
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McCarthy demands that the US help the Taiwanese "defend themselves against the Chinese Communist Party's ruthless aggression."
Officially, the US has so far only supplied the Taiwanese with defensive weapons;
Washington has deliberately left open whether they would also intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack – conflicting signals have recently come from the White House.
"McCarthy probably means both," believes China expert Small.
Much is at stake for the US, not just its reputation as a superpower.
Taiwan is also the world's top maker of advanced computer chips, which are also found in products made by US companies such as Apple and Tesla.
Beyond the question of Taiwan, McCarthy is pursuing a tough China course.
"China is the number one country when it comes to intellectual property theft," he said in a recent interview with Fox News television and announced that he would form a special committee on China in the House of Representatives.
"We will put an end to this and will no longer allow the government to sit back and let China do what it is doing to America
.
" win,” says an anonymously written opinion piece.
McCarthy: Not only China is his opponent
For Kevin McCarthy, the political opponent sits not only in Beijing's Zhongnanhai government complex, but also in the White House.
He repeatedly accuses the Biden government of letting China get away with it, most recently criticizing the US President for not supporting the Chinese protests against the zero-Covid policy decisively enough.
A strange argument.
Because the trade war with the People's Republic, which Donald Trump once started, Biden is continuing with undiminished severity.
Most recently, he even escalated the conflict when he banned US companies from supplying technologically advanced computer chips to China.
Beijing could thus fall far behind the USA in the development of supercomputers and artificial intelligence.
"One can hardly say that the Democrats are too soft on China," agrees China expert Small.
He suspects that in the future McCarthy will simply claim that the Biden government's tough course on China is his credit - because it is the Republicans who are keeping the pressure on the White House.
McCarthy can be sure that he will resonate with voters: According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, more than 80 percent have a negative view of the People's Republic.