A new Rasmussen survey released Thursday says “70% of Likely U.S. voters believe it is likely that China will invade Taiwan in the next few years, including 38% who say such an invasion is Very Likely.”
The same survey shows that two-thirds of likely voters support House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to meet with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, which the mainland Communist government strongly opposed. One day later, a delegation of U.S. members of Congress visited the island nation, and the Communists didn’t like that, either.
As reported by NBC News, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was part of that delegation. He told reporters, “Being here I think sends a signal to the Chinese Communist Party that the United States supports Taiwan and that we’re going to harden Taiwan, and we want them to think twice about invading Taiwan.”
According to Rasmussen, “Eighty percent of Republicans, 66% of Democrats and 65% of unaffiliated voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that China will invade Taiwan in the next few years.”
Also, 66 percent of poll respondents supported McCarthy’s meeting with President Tsai. The breakdown on that question is 62% of Democrats, 71% of Republicans and 65% of unaffiliated voters approve of the McCarthy meeting.
On another question “58% of Democrats, 14% of Republicans and 37% of voters unaffiliated with either major party give Biden a good or excellent rating for his handling of China issues. Seventy-five percent (75%) of Republicans, 19% of Democrats and 47% of unaffiliated voters rate Biden poor on issues related to China.”
The survey of 971 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on March 30 and April 2-3, Rasmussen Reports said. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
China has been flexing its muscles at every opportunity, allegedly because they do not believe Biden to be a strong president. Whether that is an accurate assessment is pure speculation, but the Chinese government has had its eye on Taiwan for decades, with no resolution in sight.
It is worth noting that McCarthy met with Tsai in Simi Valley, California at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, according to ABC News.
The NBC News report noted, “The flurry of visits comes amid dramatically worsening China-U.S. relations, as Beijing increases pressure on Taiwan, declines to criticize Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and grows more assertive internationally.”