Thursday, during an interview with FBN host Maria Bartiromo, Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) warned if China were to successfully gain control the waters around Taiwan, they would control the shipping routes for Japan, South Korea and partially Australia, which he estimated to be about 50% of the globe’s gross domestic product.
“Well, number one, I’m glad [Pelosi] went,” Waltz said. “To not go, as the Biden White House was suggesting, would have been a devastating message to our allies and the Taiwanese — and to the Chinese military, that if we weren’t even willing to visit, what would that mean for our willingness to defend Taiwan and the thriving democracy that it is? Look, I think it’s important to point out why Taiwan matters so much and why it matters to U.S. national and economic security. The Taiwanese strait alone, Maria, has half the world’s shipping flowing through to East Asia and markets around the world, and 90 percent of the largest container vessels in the world flow through the Taiwanese strait. If the Chinese control the waters around Taiwan, they control the shipping routes into — I mean, excuse me, into Japan, South Korea, partially Australia. It’s about 50% of global GDP.”
“And what they’re betting on is if they have to use military force to take Taiwan, yes, they are developing the military capability to take out our planes and ships and the United States’ ability to intervene, but they also are betting that if they turn off our pharmaceuticals, our food supply, the solar panels, and the wind turbines, that the left are demanding that we buy, if they turn that off from Americans, then they’ll demand that we don’t get in the way. And they’ll essentially do what Sun Tzu, the famous military — Chinese military philosopher, always said, which is, subdue your enemy without firing a shot. So this is about an economic war way before it becomes any type of military conflict.
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