Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wisc.) said if China’s military invades Taiwan, China should expect sanctions and other consequences from the global community.
“If China were to attempt to forcibly annex Taiwan, the Chinese Communist Party would be walking into the same kind of sanctions dragnet that the U.S. has tightened around Cuba, and the international framework that the West has imposed on Russia and Belarus,” Tiffany told State Newswire.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine have taken a heavy toll, limiting Russia’s ability to replenish its weapons, Voice Of America reported Dec. 4. Trade controls have made it difficult for Russia to repair or replace weapons that have been destroyed or abandoned in the course of the war.
The U.S. has maintained trade restrictions on Cuba since 1962 in response to its government’s actions, according to the State Department (DOS). Those restrictions were strengthened in 2017 through actions taken by the Departments of State, Commerce and Treasury. Multiple Cuban officials were sanctioned in 2021 for responding to peaceful protests with violence.
A Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report argues that if China uses direct lethal force to defeat Taiwan’s army and remove the island’s civilian leadership, Beijing would face potentially severe costs on multiple fronts. The report assumes in a simplified analysis that China would not use nuclear weapons and that limited intervention by U.S. military forces would not defeat China. The report asserts that if “reunification” through forceful means succeeds, Beijing will sacrifice progress toward becoming a global superpower.
One “reunification” consequence is that China would be met with economic repercussions from the global community restricting its ability to import and export goods. Invasion likely would negatively affect the value of Chinese currency, on China’s domestic markets, and on business sentiment, according to the report. “Meaningful” intervention by the U.S. military would drastically increase the costs incurred by China. The military conflict would take place close to China’s “most economically important and populated provinces.” A successful “reunification” would have Chinese forces occupying an island with “a hostile population” and “a shattered local economy, including its semiconductor sector.”
The report, titled “’Reunification’ with Taiwan through Force Would Be a Pyrrhic Victory for China,” was authored by Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS, and Gerard DiPippo, Senior Fellow of the Economics Program at CSIS.
The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, asserts that the U.S. aims to maintain peaceful trade and cultural relations with both Taiwan and China. “The United States shall provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character and shall maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or social or economic system, of the people of Taiwan,” according to the Congressional Record.
Tiffany has represented Wisconsin’s Seventh Congressional District since 2020, according to his website. Tiffany served in the Wisconsin State Assembly and State Senate, representing the 12th District.
