Top Foreign Affairs Committee Republican says China’s biggest fear not US but inability to control its people

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/07/11
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The ranking Republican in the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, said he believes recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign, independent country would be the harshest punishment that the U.S. could inflict on Beijing.

In an interview with VOA earlier this week, the Texas representative expressed his belief that the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) ideology is destined to fail. Stressing that the U.S. is not Beijing's top enemy, he said Chinese citizens who had been indoctrinated or oppressed by the authoritarian regime would someday see the truth and stand up against their ruler and that this would be the party's biggest fear: being unable to control its people.

McCaul pointed out that the U.S. has no desire to engage in a military conflict with the CCP but that it will not hesitate to condemn human rights violations and support democracy. He also urged Chinese citizens to try to understand that their voices and basic rights have been taken away.

When asked about the American stance on cross-strait issues, McCaul emphasized that Washington would not allow Beijing's crackdown on Hong Kong to be repeated in Taiwan. He noted the CCP had intensified its threats toward Taiwan recently, with some on the Chinese side claiming Hong Kong's national security law is a blueprint for the island nation.
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