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Chairman Gallagher commended the versatile nature of the exercise -- which helped members to understand the potentially devastating economic impacts of a CCP invasion of Taiwan and to deploy financial and economic statecraft against the CCP. Gallagher credited his counterparts in the minority.
On Bipartisan Brainstorming:
“The game was run by a member of Biden's transition team, and we had huge enthusiastic input from the minority. I think everyone there was laser focused on how we prevent war. I was surprised at how much time we spent talking about the economic and financial components of it, which is good and credit goes to the Ranking Member and the Democratic members who had the great idea to add an economic component to the game." - Chairman Gallagher
On Economic Impact:
"“Even if Xi’s intrusion of Taiwan doesn't go kinetic and stays confined to a blockade scenario, there’s still trillions of dollars of loss and real pain to the global economy. There's no costless scenario short of convincing Xi Jinping he cannot achieve his objective and therefore deterring the crisis in the first place.” - Chairman Gallagher
While the exercise served as a helpful tool for members to understand the CCP's revisionist desire to upend peace and stability in the strait, Chairman Gallagher worried some in the American business community operate with some flawed assumptions about the CCP's motivations.
"I recently had a conversation with one of the heads of a leading financial services company. He looked me in the eye and said that the probability of a cross strait invasion -- the probability that Xi Jinping is going to launch an invasion -- is near zero. I found myself shocked by that because at least on the Armed Services Committee on the Intel Committee, we are increasingly concerned about the prospects of a cross strait invasion. And for someone to say that --I think he's not only geopolitically naïve, but bordering on fiduciary irresponsibility” - Chairman Gallagher
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