The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “selectively clipped” a video in which US Representative Seth Moulton suggested “blow[ing] up” Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) facilities in Taiwan, he said yesterday.
“The CCP selectively clipped my comments, spread them on social media and attempted to undermine the US-Taiwan partnership,” Moulton said in response to a request for clarification of his remarks.
Moulton was most likely alluding to a video shared on Chinese social media platform Douyin on Saturday last week, in which he says at a think tank event: “...very clear to the Chinese that if you invade Taiwan, we are gonna blow up TSMC.”
Photo: REUTERS
“I just throw that out not because that’s necessarily the best strategy, but because it’s an example,” the Democratic lawmaker added, according to the clip posted by the official account of China’s Southeast Television current affairs program.
The clip was shared on Twitter later that day.
Several Chinese-language media reported on Moulton’s remarks made at a discussion panel in California on Tuesday last week, prompting the government to weigh in.
“The CCP has once again tried to divide the US and Taiwan using disinformation by deliberately taking a comment of mine out of context,” Moulton said.
He was discussing ideas as to “how to convey to the CCP the enormous costs they would incur if they choose to invade Taiwan,” Moulton said.
Moulton, who was part of a bipartisan congressional delegation to Taiwan in October last year, said he was proud to support Taiwan’s vibrant democracy and economy.
“I am committed to ensuring that Taiwan is prepared to defend itself against any effort to change the status quo by force,” and “preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific,” he added.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Wednesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said that some media outlets had used Moulton’s comments to suggest that many people in the US support the bombing of TSMC.
However, careful examination of the US lawmaker’s comments suggest that those reports had fallen prey to “China’s cognitive warfare” against Taiwan, Wu said.
The military would not tolerate acts by any party to destroy a facility in the nation, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said earlier this week.
According to the full video of the event on strategic competition between the US and China, Moulton brought up TSMC when the host asked him about how the US could use its semiconductor policy to deter China.
Moulton said that “one of the interesting ideas that’s floated out there for deterrence is just making it very clear to the Chinese, that if you invade Taiwan, we’re gonna blow up TSMC.”
“I just throw that out, not because that’s necessarily the best strategy, but because it’s an example,” he said, adding that “Taiwanese really don’t like this idea, right?”
Another panelist, Michele Flournoy, responded to Moulton: “This is a terrible idea.”
Flournoy, who served as US undersecretary of defense for policy from 2009 to 2012, said that such a move would lead to a US$2 trillion hit to the global economy within the first year, and would bring global manufacturing to a standstill.
“I’m not promoting the idea. I’m not promoting the idea,” Moulton said. “What I’m saying is these are some of the things that are actually actively being debated among US policymakers.”
Moulton went on to say that if China took over Taiwan — by force or otherwise — and seized TSMC, the US could “face the same level of economic consequences.”
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