GOP 2024 Candidates Cautious About Committing U.S. Troops to Taiwan
Republican presidential candidates are wary of committing to sending U.S. forces to Taiwan in the wake of a Chinese attack, telling the Daily Caller that they would not go as far as President Joe Biden’s promise to defend the island nation.
Biden has repeatedly said the U.S. would intervene militarily if China moved against Taiwan, which the Chinese communist government considers a rebel province. The White House has stressed that Biden’s remarks do not represent a departure from America’s longstanding policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan and that the U.S. still adheres to the “One China Policy.”
In conversations with the Daily Caller, the campaigns of most Republican presidential candidates did not voice support for sending U.S. troops. Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declined to provide comment. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott emphasized deterrence. Four GOP hopefuls — Vivek Ramaswamy, Larry Elder, Mike Pence and Asa Hutchinson — said directly that they would be open to potentially sending the U.S. military to defend Taiwan.
Ramaswamy has said he would “intervene militarily so long as the U.S. is still dependent on Taiwan for semiconductors,” but “has not said whether that will be boots on the ground or what that would look like,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for Ramaswamy, told the Caller. The conservative entrepreneur has also previously floated the idea of providing Taiwanese civilians with AR-15 rifles and firearms training.
Here’s how we protect Taiwan without going to war with China: open a branch of the @NRA in Taiwan, put an AR-15 in the hands of every family, and train them how to use it. That’ll give Xi Jinping a taste of American exceptionalism. pic.twitter.com/jLjcown8r2
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) June 4, 2023
Elder told the Caller that he “would not tie our hands by making a commitment now for a hypothetical situation in the future, but all options would be on the table.” (Read more from “GOP 2024 Candidates Cautious About Committing U.S. Troops to Taiwan” HERE)
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