Trump's national security advisor pick Waltz touts Taiwan's importance

New York, Nov. 17 (CNA) U.S. House Representative Mike Waltz, nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be national security advisor in his upcoming administration, recently emphasized the importance of Taiwan in advanced chip production and global trade.

In remarks delivered at a Reagan Foundation event in California in late October to promote his book "Hard Truths: Think and Lead Like a Green Beret," Waltz said China's leader Xi Jinping (習近平) has been "openly talking about the decline of America" and "replacing America as a global leader, the decline of Western values."

Waltz said Xi aims to replace Western values with "essentially a techno surveillance state dictatorship" and described Taiwan as Xi's "next step" after taking control over Tibet and Hong Kong.

The Republic lawmaker from Florida warned of the "implications" of China taking over Taiwan.

"Not only would they control 80 percent of the world's most advanced computer chips, if you look at the geography they would control the shipping lanes into Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, about 50 percent of global GDP," Waltz said.

"So the stakes are enormous," he added.

Waltz, a retired colonel, was the first Green Beret elected to congress in 2018 after serving multiple tours in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa.

The Republican lawmaker is a well-known China hawk who currently serves in the House China Task Force that seeks to address the Chinese Communist Party's influence.

Waltz said China has built a military in which their navy and space forces were now larger than those of the U.S., while the Chinese government was "tripling -- not just doubling -- tripling the size of their nuclear Arsenal."

Waltz said future U.S. presidents should think not just in traditional terms of "tank to tank, ship to ship," but also in terms of cyber attacks -- such as those conducted by Volt Typhoon, a state-sponsored hacking group in China.

According to Waltz, Volt Typhoon is not just spying but also putting "cyber time bombs into our system."

"The first shot in every war game now is fired in space and in cyber," he said.