Cammack: China Trying ‘to Establish a Pretext’ for Conflict Like Russia Did, They Push the Envelope ‘More Each Time’

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Faulkner Focus,” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) stated that China sailing a warship in front of an American destroyer in the Taiwan Strait is an attempt by China to “normalize” this behavior, China is “pushing the envelope a little bit more each time” in an attempt to normalize their behavior, and is attempting “to establish a pretext to justify any hostilities in the region” the same way Russia did.

Cammack said, “[W]hat China’s trying to do is normalize this behavior. We, on the American side, need to continue to have a robust military presence, continue to make sure that [those] freedom of navigation operations continue in the region, because one, there [are] economic implications, but also, this type of behavior is for China to be continuing to put that out there so that they can say, well, we’ve been doing this, we’ve been doing this. They’re just pushing the envelope a little bit more each time to make it normal. It’s not. We need to stand firm. We need to put word out that this will not be tolerated, and, as our United States Navy said, it was unsafe [operation]. We have to be vocal, and we have to push back now.”

She added, “This is straight out of the Russia playbook, trying to establish a pretext to justify any hostilities in the region. As I said, we’re in there conducting freedom of navigation operations. There [are] no hostilities on our part. But what China wants to do is provoke a reaction to say that they were the victim, so that when they, in turn, engage, they feel justified that they have the narrative on their side.”

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