“Here is a political debate with two different parties: one party wants to talk to China [o Kuomintang] And the party [atual] President, Tsai Ing-wen [o Partido Progressista Democrático, PPD]”Doesn’t want to be part of China,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, Republican, in an interview with NBC television, when asked if Taiwan’s population wants a military conflict.
“I think the next elections in January will be very important because I believe in it like former President Ma. [Ying Heou, do Kuomintang] Now in China, China will try to influence these elections and try to take over the island without firing a shot,” McCall said, characterizing the Kuomintang as pro-Beijing.
The Republican congressman is on a tour of Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, which began after a meeting between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the US state of California. , which has been the target of protests from Beijing.
McCaul himself took to the aisle today and emphasized what happened in Hong Kong (where Beijing has enforced its control) and the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year, which started a war that has lasted more than a year. And neither the infrastructure nor the citizens were spared, “opening the eyes” of the Taiwanese people, so “very nervous”.
The US congressman underscored that Taiwan’s military capability is “not where it should be” to respond to a possible Chinese invasion.
“It’s not at the level they need. If we’re going to make peace through withdrawal, we need weapons to get to Taiwan,” McCall explained, referring to North American arms deliveries agreed between the two sides in December.
Although it rejects favoring Beijing, the Kuomintang has defended its good relations with China: “We must try to reduce tension in the Straits,” the party insisted. [de Taiwan] To advance the interests of the people and usher in a new era of harmony between the parties”.
The same party that controlled the Chinese government led by Chiang Kai-shek (the Kuomintang) was defeated in a Maoist revolution that seized power in 1949.
At the time, the pro-Western government took refuge on the island of Taiwan, whose official name was the Republic of China, rather the People’s Republic of China, with its capital in Beijing.
Beijing considers Taiwan a rebel Chinese province, and in fact, only 12 countries in the world formally and diplomatically recognize Taiwan as an independent country.
However, the US and its allies maintain informal relations and support the region’s ‘real’ independence with arms.