GOP committee chair eyeing ‘creative wargaming’ to evaluate possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) is exploring an idea to hold a House hearing that would involve lawmakers participating in a “wargaming” scenario of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Gallagher, the chairman of the newly created House Select Committee on China, said it would help showcase the importance of the self-governing island nation of Taiwan.

“We’re exploring options where we could do creative wargaming that integrates financial and economic warfare into purely kinetic warfare to tease out the importance of Taiwan,” Gallagher said in a statement provided by his office.

Semafor first reported the news in an email newsletter.

Gallagher told the publication he believed the U.S. can “turn all this happy talk about arming Taiwan to the teeth to reality” and that he wanted to make congressional hearings more interesting.

“Most members don’t show up for them, most members just read from a script, so we don’t want to fall into that trap,” Gallagher told Semafor. “Even when we’re doing formal hearings we’re going to try and make them more interesting.”

Tensions are high between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, which the ruling Chinese Communist Party sees as historically part of the mainland.

The U.S. maintains informal ties with Taiwan but does not officially recognize it as an independent nation. Last year, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) traveled to the island in a show of support.

Beijing has lately increased escalatory rhetoric around the island nation, even as the U.S. builds up its presence in the Indo-Pacific. Last month, the Pentagon announced it would build out four additional military bases in the Philippines, potentially at strategic locations across from Taiwan.

A Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) war game scenario last month found the U.S. would defeat China if it chose to defend Taiwan in most scenarios.

But all sides would face heavy losses, and the U.S. would have to rely on assistance from allies such as Japan in the region, according to the CSIS analysis.

U.S.-China relations also deteriorated this month after a Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the South Carolina coast.

The balloon, which was equipped with antennas capable of collecting communications intelligence, captured the attention of the public as it drifted across the continental U.S. for several days.

The Chinese surveillance device, which China called a weather balloon, canceled a trip that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had planned for Beijing.