Taiwan must be “armed to the teeth” if another world war is to be avoided, according to Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher, who stressed that such a war can only be won by “strengthening deterrence and making it clear to Xi Jinping that attacking Taiwan would be a disastrous mistake.”
The Select Committee on China, which Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) was selected to chair, recently simulated a future Chinese invasion of Taiwan in a war game exercise.
In a video shared on Monday, Gallagher, who serves as the top Republican on the House Armed Services Military Personnel Committee, detailed the outcome and lessons of the proposed scenario.
“To paraphrase President Eisenhower: ‘The only way to win this war is to prevent it.’
That means strengthening deterrence and making it clear to Xi Jinping that attacking Taiwan would be a disastrous mistake.” — Chairman @RepGallagher
WATCH: Chairman Gallagher reveals the… pic.twitter.com/UXLpWRYKfh
— The Select Committee on the CCP (@committeeonccp) April 24, 2023
“On Wednesday night, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party hosted a war game around a fictional conflict in the Taiwan Strait in 2027,” the nearly three-minute clip begins.
The exercise, which had an added economic component, saw both Republicans and Democrats come together, “laser-focused on how we prevent war.”
The clip continues with Gallagher describing step-by-step how the game played out.
“First, the PLA [Chinese People’s Liberation Army] massed an invasion force and preemptively struck our positions in Okinawa and Guam,” he says, adding, “Deterrence failed, in other words.”
The next phase saw the sinking of 80 PLA ships in the Taiwan Strait over six days “thanks to our undersea capabilities and long-range anti-ship missiles,” a move followed by 80,000 PLA troops “gain[ing] a lodgement on the main island of Taiwan.”
Subsequently, we used up “almost all our best ammo, long-range precision fires, within a week of the fighting.”
While American economic sanctions “imposed [a] crippling cost on Chinese banks,” Gallagher noted that “many allies, even G7 partners, hesitated to join our sanctions regime.”
And while China saw heavy losses over six days, he explained, “we were nowhere near breaking the PLA’s will to fight, and they were starting to use commercial ships to continue the invasion.”
Gallagher then began listing lessons from the exercise along with the actions necessary to prepare for any similar scenarios.
“Neither the U.S. nor Taiwan had nearly enough critical munitions in the theater to deter the CCP,” he warned, adding that despite having “severely degraded the invasion,” it could not be fully stopped.
In order to prevent another world war, he suggests arming the East Asian democracy to counter Chinese threats.
“If we want to have a hope of stopping World War III, we need to therefore arm Taiwan to the teeth right now and clear the $19 billion worth of foreign military sales backlog that is, frankly, an embarrassment — something I’ve talked with every Taiwanese leader about,” he says.
He also calls to “reinvigorate our defense industrial base and start cranking out critical munitions like long-range anti-ship missiles,” as well as “get our allies and partners on board with the idea of economic deterrence long before the shooting starts.”
According to Gallagher, “Russian sanctions, negotiations, will look like a cakewalk in comparison to what we’d have to put together against the CCP — [which is] all the more reason we [need to] put it together now.”
He also noted that what took him “aback” was how — in contrast to previous war games in which the military side escalates quickly — the economic side rapidly escalated.
“By day six, global trade had ground to a complete halt and we kicked Chinese banks off the SWIFT system,” he noted. “Markets were tanking and the PRC’s aggression had created an economic and humanitarian catastrophe.”
“Companies need to prepare for this,” he added. “Failing to do so is a dereliction of their fiduciary duties.”
But the greatest lesson, Gallagher states, is the need to avert conflict.
Flashback: Mike Gallagher’s Full Opening Statement on the China Committee
The Select Committee on the CCP“The biggest lesson, though? Well, to paraphrase [former President Dwight] Eisenhower, ‘the only way to win this war is to prevent it,’” he said. “And that means strengthening deterrence and making it clear to Xi Jinping that attacking Taiwan would be a disastrous mistake.”
The remarks come amid rising tensions between Communist China and Taiwan, with the former having long claimed democratic, self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory.
It also comes just days after Beijing concluded week-long war games around the independent island.
Taiwan and mainland China split in 1949 after a civil war with the former immediately proclaiming its independence.
Beijing says the island is obligated to rejoin the mainland, by force if necessary, while Taiwan maintains freedom and democracy triumph over Communist dictatorship and refuses to yield.
In October, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping opened the Communist Party Congress with a two-hour speech in which he threatened violence towards Taiwan, insisting “all measures necessary” are on the table to annex the neighboring country.
He later increased his dominance after being named to an unprecedented third term as head of the ruling Communist Party.
On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) emphasized the need to ward off a possible military conflict over Taiwan, telling a Japanese media outlet that “what China respects is strength.”
In January, Gallagher (R-WI) blasted the Biden administration’s foreign policy while warning of the possibility of a “complete collapse of American deterrence.”
Related: White House: Delivering Munitions to Taiwan “Could Take Some Time”
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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