Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Tuesday cautioned lawmakers against drawing comparisons between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
Policymakers in Washington have grown increasingly concerned that Beijing is emboldened by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and have raised fears that perceived U.S. weakness on a global stage could escalate tensions in the Pacific.
Rep. Michael T. McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has said that given Russia’s unchecked aggression coupled with President Biden’s bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, he feared China would make a move for Taiwan sooner rather than later.
At the Capitol on Tuesday, Rep. Mike Gallagher pressed Mr. Austin to assess whether the Western allies’ response to Russia’s invasion would have any impact on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to invade Taiwan.
“I don’t want to speculate on whether an invasion [of Taiwan] is likely or less likely,” Mr. Austin told the House Armed Services Committee. “I would say that we need to be careful about making direct comparisons between what’s going on in Ukraine and what could happen in Taiwan.”
Mr. Gallagher, Wisconsin Republican, dug in during the exchange on what he described as a failure by the U.S. to prevent Mr. Putin from invading and asked whether a more aggressive U.S. posture toward Taiwan was warranted.
“The goal was to deter Putin,” Mr. Gallagher said. “We did not achieve that goal. Putin invaded anyway on Feb. 24.”
Mr. Austin pushed back on Mr. Gallagher’s characterization of the U.S. response as a failure to deter Mr. Putin.
“I do not believe that our campaign has failed,” Mr. Austin said. “This is still in progress and there is a price to be paid by Putin for what he’s done.”
“If we put forces into Ukraine to fight Putin, this would be a different story,” he added. “But we made a decision that we weren’t going to do that and we made the decision for the right reasons and I support those decisions.”
Mr. Gallagher followed Mr. Austin’s response by asking whether the same analysis would “hold true with respect to Taiwan,” and whether putting U.S. forces on Taiwan would “increase or decrease the likelihood that Xi Jinping would attempt an invasion.”
Mr. Austin declined to state whether he would advise putting U.S. forces on Taiwan but said it was misguided to compare the two.
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“I think that it’s not advisable to make direct comparisons between Ukraine and Taiwan,” Mr. Austin said. “These are two completely different scenarios, two different theaters.”
“I don’t want to speculate about what is in Mr. Xi’s head, but I think as the world looks at this they’ve been impressed by the commitment, the resolve of many countries in the world to resist that kind of behavior,” he said.
Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this story misidentified the committee before which Mr. Austin testified. He appeared before the House Armed Services Committee.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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