The House’s new panel on China will be war gaming a Chinese invasion of Taiwan to explore ways the US can respond in the latest example of the US government preparing for a future conflict with Beijing.
Axios reported that on Wednesday evening, members of the China committee, which is led by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), will take the role of US officials in the war game that will be conducted by a Center for a New American Security (CNAS).
CNAS is a hawkish think-tank that receives funding from US arms makers and the Taiwanese government through the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, Taiwan’s de facto embassy.
Several members of the Biden administration came from CNAS, including Kurt Campbell, a co-founder of the think tank who now serves as President Biden’s top Asia official on the National Security Council.
China hawks in Congress argue that the US must continue ramping up support for Taiwan to deter a Chinese invasion. “We need to be moving heaven and earth to enhance our deterrence and denial posture so that Xi Jinping concludes that he just can’t do it,” Gallagher told AP.
But China’s recent rhetoric and actions have demonstrated that more US support for Taiwan puts the island under greater Chinese military pressure. Beijing just concluded massive live-fire drills around Taiwan that were launched in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in California.
Time to sit around a table and work out some new agreements before things continue to escalate…
No guardrails, non-stop provocations with one of our biggest trading partners and crucial supply chain link amidst inflation that is STILL at 6%. In fact, we have a WHOLE COMMITEE on it! What can possibly go wrong? Congress is literally an echo chamber of the military industrial complex hawks. Nothing ever useful ever passes other than the annual defense bill that just balloon by 10%+ every year.
China better watch out…
These folks are known for their stern letters and televised ineffectual House Hearings.
So…a bunch of 60 and 70 year old politicians are going to “war-game” a China war.
I can’t think of anything more humorous than Geezers (and politicians at that) pretending to go to war in a game setting.
I hope they invite their grandkids in to help them with all that new fangled electronic stuff.
Why? Hitler’s generals war gamed the invasion of Russia about a dozen times, and lost every scenario. They still invaded. I think if the idiots want a war, they’ll get one.
BTW, the staff officer who headed the German war games was a dude named Paulus. I thought some people might find that a bit ironic.
What happens if the Kuomintang pro Beijing candidate wins in the coming election, … a Taipei “Maidan”?