State of the Union: Interview with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX)
Interview
"Well, I think two things.
I think, last year, they -- it was President Biden in Germany that watered down the Ukraine provisions. And it seems like they're going the same pattern this G20. When it comes to China, I think we need to hear very strong language about how we're going to counter the malign influence of China.
The reason why Chairman Xi is not in India is because they are foes. They have a kinetic war on their border. And he's basically saying: I'm not going to be a part of this.
I think it's a good opportunity to say, look, we need to work together to counter any invasion of Taiwan, any invasion of the South Pacific Sea, because, as we look at Taiwan, that is very connected to the Ukraine battle. They're all interconnected, because Beijing is tied to Moscow.
Putin and Chairman Xi are tied together. That needs to be clear. I think the G20 needs to stand up to this aggression and be clear about what we're going to do.
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I think that's a -- I mean, look, I will call...
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... the balls and strikes here. That was a good move.
I think we need to -- we don't have NATO in the Pacific. So what we need are allies and friends. That would be Japan. That would be South Korea. That would be the Philippines for a forward operating base, and also Vietnam, the AUKUS, Australia and U.K. Those are our main allies and friends going into what could be a potential conflict.
But, again, what I heard in Asia over and over was, what happens in Ukraine will happen in Taiwan. That's why they're interconnected.
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Well, they're overleveraged, but they are in 40 different countries in Belt and Road Initiative, which is funded, by the way, Jake, by the World Bank itself.
They get other developing nations truly in a debt trap. And the IMF has to bail them out at the end. So it's a bit of a scheme they play. The other thing is, with the one child policy, they have a younger population that maybe cannot sustain the older generation population in China.
I would argue that this is -- actually, this is a real positive that China did not attend, to have the G20 actually stand up against China to -- because we don't have the NATO in the Pacific, we can draw our friends and allies like South Korea, Japan, Philippines, AUKUS, U.K. and Australia, but also the Quad that was mentioned. That's Japan, India, Australia and the United States.
So, in a way, I think this is a great opportunity to show our counter to the malign influence of China. However, they were weak on Russia and Ukraine issue. That's my observation.
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