Taiwan threat from China serious: US House GOP

US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas attends a luncheon with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, in Taipei on Saturday. Pic/AP

The chairman of the House Select Committee on China said Saturday the US must take seriously the threat posed to Taiwan, as Beijing launched military drills around the island in the aftermath of the Taiwanese president's meetings with American lawmakers.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., who attended the meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen in California last week, told The Associated Press that he plans to lead his committee in working to shore up the island government's defences, encouraging Congress to expedite military aid to Taiwan.

"I think it all just points to what is obvious," Gallagher told the AP, arguing that Chinese President Xi Jinping is intent on reunifying Taiwan with the mainland. "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 said.

Also Read: China sends warships, flies fighter jets near Taiwan after leader's US trip

China conducted drills with warships and dozens of fighter jets around Taiwan on Saturday, the Taiwanese government said, in what was viewed as retaliation for the meeting between the US lawmakers and the president of the self-ruled island democracy claimed by Beijing as part of its territory.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosted Tsai in a bipartisan session at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, with more than a dozen members of the US House for what was the most sensitive stop during her transit through the US. China's response to Tsai's transit through the US has not, so far, been as intense as its reaction last year after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.

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