(TheConservativeTimes.org) – Entrepreneur and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy recently laid out his stance on China. He outlined that once the U.S. attains “semiconductor independence,” China could invade Taiwan without any consequences.
Ramaswamy stressed the importance of semiconductors and their essential use in communications, healthcare, the military, the energy sector, and much more for the United States to remain competitively viable. He noted that the U.S. needs to take more action to produce semiconductors and that the annexation of Taiwan by China would allow China to dominate the semiconductor supply chain, which they could use as leverage over the U.S.
Ramaswamy’s stance is consistent in that he would not send U.S. troops into foreign conflicts, whether to defend Taiwan in this hypothetical or to defend Ukraine, which he has insisted is not in the national interest of the U.S. He also outlined how he believes China aims to annex Taiwan before 2049 and the 100th anniversary of the Chinese civil war, and potentially before 2028, which makes the geopolitical issue more urgent. While Taiwan maintains its government, China has asserted sovereignty over the island since the civil war, vowing to reunify Taiwan with China with military force on the table. While the U.S. has close ties, Ramaswamy would hope to reduce reliance on Taiwan and China to withdraw the U.S. from the dispute altogether.
FiveThirtyEight aggregate polling on the 2024 Republican presidential race shows Ramaswamy in third with about 7.5%. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is at 52.7%, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is at 14.8%, former Vice President Mike Pence is at 6.0%, and all other candidates are polling at less than 5.0%. DeSantis and Ramaswamy are significantly behind Trump, despite ongoing legal issues and indictments of the former President. With the Republican primary debate this month and the primaries just months away in early 2024, candidates will continue to attempt to appeal to voters through rhetoric and policy positions.
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