U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 29, discussing whether the recent U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduroon January 3 provides Beijing with a pretext for invading Taiwan.
During the hearing, Rubio emphasized that the operation demonstrated Americantactical capabilities and global force projection, as a deterrent to adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran.
When asked whether the operation might provoke China into considering similar aggression against Taiwan, Rubio responded thatChinese President Xi Jinping's (習近平) policy towards Taiwan is primarily driven byhis ideology and concern for his personal political legacy, neither of which will change due to the strike in Venezuela.
Rubio noted that China's recent investigations into Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Liu Zhenli (劉振立) - two high-ranking generals with actual combat experience from the Sino-Vietnamese War - are part of a purge of military leaders in recent years, often as a means to address systemic embezzlement of military development funds.
Senator Pete Ricketts, who shares many ofRubio's views on China,stated that China does not care about international law or norms and that Xi's decision to attack Taiwan will dependentirely on whether he thinks he can win. He agreed that the strike against Venezuela deterred Beijing by reminding it of its military's shortcomings relative to the U.S. （Related： Myth-Making Is Not a Crime—And Taiwan’s Courts Know It ｜ Latest ）
