A Russian victory in Ukraine would give a “green light” for an invasion of Taiwan by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which justifies US aid, former US vice president Mike Pence said on Tuesday.
Pence, who is seeking the Republican nomination for next year’s US presidential election, was speaking at the first event in a series of conversations with Republican candidates cohosted by The Associated Press and the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service in Washington.
The contrast between Pence and some other Republicans has been particularly stark on Ukraine.
Photo: AP
Many Republican voters oppose sending more military aid to Kyiv and Pence is polling in single digits.
Helping Ukraine is also the best way to check China’s ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.
“I really do believe that if Russia overruns Ukraine, that’ll give a green light to China to move against Taiwan,” he said. “And quite frankly, if we don’t check the efforts by authoritarian regimes to redraw international lines by force, the rest of the 21st century could look a lot like the first half of the 20th century.”
Pence has accused rivals for the Republican nomination, including former US president Donald Trump, of abandoning US allies.
The only way to keep the US safe is by engaging with the world, he said.
“America is the leader of the free world,” he said. “If we’re not leading the free world, the free world is not being led.”
Pence has previously cast China as a major threat.
In a speech last month at the Hudson Institute think tank in the US capital, he called Beijing “the greatest strategic and economic threat to the United States of America in the 21st century” and said it was at risk of becoming an “evil empire.”
In response, the US should work to bolster Taiwan’s defense capabilities to stave off any threat, he said.
He also wants to ban China from purchasing new US farmland and has called to move high-tech manufacturing out of the country and to ban TikTok.
Asked on Tuesday if it was realistic to ask tens of millions of young people to stop using the app, Pence said: “I don’t know about realistic, but it’s the right idea.”
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