February 28, 2023 | The Wall Street Journal
Bring Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen to Capitol Hill
Rather than visit the island, Kevin McCarthy should invite her to address a joint session.
February 28, 2023 | The Wall Street Journal
Bring Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen to Capitol Hill
Rather than visit the island, Kevin McCarthy should invite her to address a joint session.
Excerpt
Speaker Kevin McCarthy is weighing a trip to Taiwan. Instead, he should invite Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to address a joint session of Congress at the end of her term early next year.
Mr. McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan last summer, and while the trip was well-intentioned, the consequences were regrettable. Beijing seized on Mrs. Pelosi’s trip to establish a “new normal” in the Taiwan Strait, with China now regularly conducting military maneuvers much closer to the island. China more than doubled its fighter-jet incursions into Taiwan’s air-defense zone, from 538 in 2021 to 1,241 in 2022.
Mr. Singleton is senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former U.S. diplomat. Follow him on Twitter @CraigMSingleton. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.