WASHINGTON, D.C.– Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) today called on Speaker Pelosi to continue with her planned CODEL visit to Taiwan after President Biden cautioned against her trip.
In a video statement, Rep. Gallagher slammed the President’s comments, saying in part, “This is a bad message from the President and an overall weak message for US foreign policy. I urge Speaker Pelosi not to back down. In fact, I think the right approach right now would be to take a bigger congressional delegation and reach out to Congressional Republicans and bring them along on the trip and send a strong message that we won’t back down in the face of Chinese intimidation.”
Click HERE to watch Rep. Gallagher’s video, or read the transcript below.
“President Biden just said that it would be a bad idea for Speaker Pelosi to take a trip to Taiwan. The Taiwan Travel Act explicitly says it’s US policy to allow officials at all levels to travel to Taiwan because insufficient contact — with high level officials in particular — has been bad for relationships between the US and Taiwan. So, the President is advocating a policy in opposition to the Taiwan Travel Act. More to the point, he’s effectively allowing the Chinese Communist Party to have a veto over the travel plans of members of Congress, and in the process, weakening our entire deterrent posture with respect to Taiwan.
“In other words, if we’re too afraid to allow CODELs to go to Taiwan for fear of provoking the CCP, how are we ever going to increase and expedite military sales to Taiwan? How are we going to have basing agreements in the Indo-Pacific in order to increase our presence to deter a PLA invasion of Taiwan? This is a bad message from the President and an overall weak message for US foreign policy.
“I urge Speaker Pelosi not to back down. In fact, I think the right approach right now would be to take a bigger congressional delegation and reach out to congressional Republicans and bring them along on the trip and send a strong message that we won’t back down in the face of Chinese intimidation.”
