Last week, as Ranking Member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), I joined with Chairman Mike Gallagher, the Center for a New American Security, and our committee members to conduct a tabletop exercise to simulate how the U.S. would respond if the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) were to invade Taiwan. Chairman Gallagher and I organized this bipartisan event as a means of preparing our committee and educating the public about the threats posed to Taiwan by the CCP and what such an invasion would mean for our own economic wellbeing and security at a time when the CCP has been expanding its military presence around Taiwan.
The purpose of this simulation was to ensure that we never need to face such a crisis in reality. Although U.S. Armed Forces would unquestionably defeat any threat and prevail in any challenge, we want to actively deter any aggression because the cost of any conflict with the CCP would be unimaginably high. An attack by the CCP would result in a staggering loss of life while our economy would suffer an enormous shock. Due to Taiwan’s status as our eighth-largest trading partner and its role in producing semiconductors, an attack on Taiwan would result in at least $1 trillion lost in GDP for the United States while costing our economy millions of jobs. Overall, the effect would be worse than the Great Depression.
Fundamentally, the lesson of this simulation was the importance of working with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region to deter a CCP invasion of Taiwan through effective diplomacy and military preparedness. At a dinner last month, President Tsai of Taiwan said that “the safer Taiwan is, the safer the world is.” I’m committed to working with members of both parties and our partners and allies across the world to ensure the safety of Taiwan, and through it, the security and prosperity of the United States.
