Ron DeSantis says deterrence key to preventing Taiwan conflict
Florida governor, possible presidential candidate, says status quo is goal
TOKYO -- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential Republican presidential candidate, said Tuesday that deterrence was the key to preventing a conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
"The goal should be to deter a military situation from happening," DeSantis told Nikkei Asia in an interview in Tokyo. "If [Chinese President] Xi Jinping thinks that the costs of him launching some type of hostile action outweigh whatever benefit he will receive, then you will not see that happen."
DeSantis did not say, however, whether he supported military intervention should China attack Taiwan. This stands in contrast to President Joe Biden, who has said several times that the U.S. would defend the democratic island should it be invaded -- an apparent shift from Washington's long-standing policy of "strategic ambiguity."
"The goal should be maintaining the status quo that we have now," DeSantis said, adding that Taiwan was "an ally," "a free society that is flourishing," and "an important strategic interest" as a key supplier of semiconductors.
Communist China has never ruled Taiwan but claims it as its territory, and Xi has not ruled out using force to bring the island under its control.
"Xi Jinping clearly wants to take Taiwan at some point. He's got a certain time horizon," DeSantis said, adding, however, "Ultimately, what China respects is strength."
DeSantis was in Tokyo as part of a weeklong tour that will also take him to South Korea, Israel and the U.K., a tour apparently designed to burnish his diplomatic and security credentials.
DeSantis' views on Taiwan underline the divide within U.S. political circles on foreign military engagement over conflicts such as Ukraine. Still, both Republicans and Democrats are more in agreement when it comes to China. DeSantis called the country "a significant threat."
"If you look at where we are at this juncture in the 21st century, what the Soviet Union was to us, that's really what China represents in terms of the threat to the free world," he said. "In many respects, the Chinese Communist Party is stronger than what the Soviet Union was, certainly economically," he added.
DeSantis stressed the importance of allies such as Japan and South Korea in dealing with China. But he also echoed Trump in calling on allies to do more to defend themselves.
"If the Indo-Pacific is where most of the threats to us are, and that's going to be our focus, then the Europeans are going have to do more," he said.
"The Europeans really need to do more [on Ukraine]. I mean, this is their continent. The U.S. has provided security for them. And yes, Poland -- there's some that are doing stuff, and that should be appreciated. But Germany, they're not doing anything."
Last month, DeSantis invited strong criticism for calling the Russian invasion of Ukraine a "territorial dispute," a remark he later retracted.
Still, DeSantis drew attention to the financial strain brought on by the Ukraine war, with U.S. military assistance reaching tens of billions of dollars so far.
"We have foreign policy elites that do things without having a concrete objective in mind," he said, adding that America's mounting fiscal debt has fueled inflation and led to higher interest rates, constraining the government's ability to undertake new policy initiatives.
He warned of a protracted war as Ukraine prepares for a spring offensive.
"You don't want to end up in like a [Battle of] Verdun situation, where you just have mass casualties, mass expense and end up with a stalemate." he said, referring to the longest battle of World War I. "It's in everybody's interest to try to get to a place where we can have a cease-fire."
On Monday, DeSantis met Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and discussed the security situation around Japan. He praised Kishida's decision to double Japan's defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product in five years.
"Japan really is a model," he said, adding that Europe should follow what Japan is doing and reach better targets for their military spending.
In an NBC News poll of Republican primary voters published on Sunday, DeSantis trailed former President Donald Trump as their preferred presidential candidate by 31% to 46%. While Trump has announced he will run, DeSantis has yet to commit to a run.
"I got reelected in November. We had a big landslide win -- a lot of speculation. People been asking me to run, and they had been doing that before, but it kind of ramped up," he said. "If I did that in Tokyo, people would probably say, 'Why didn't you do it in Florida?'"
DeSantis said he would make "no announcements prior to the end of the legislative session" that runs through to the beginning of May.