U.S. Senate confirms 'China hawk' Colby as defense policy chief

Taipei, April 9 (CNA) The U.S. Senate on Tuesday (U.S. time) confirmed Elbridge Colby as under secretary of defense for policy, a defense strategist who last year said that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would "plausibly and gravely" threaten the United States.

Colby's nomination was approved in a 54-45 vote, with former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell being the only majority party lawmaker to vote against it. Three Democratic senators supported his confirmation.

Last month, Colby told the Armed Services Committee that "Taiwan's fall would be a disaster for American interests," referring to a potential invasion of the island nation by the People's Republic of China.

The former deputy assistant of defense for Strategy and Force Development during U.S. President Donald Trump's first term of office also expressed his view that Taiwan's defense spending was too low to adequately address the "threat" posed by China.

"I think actually as a proportion of GDP, it's well below three percent," Colby said on March 4.

"I agree with President Trump that they should be more like 10 percent or at least something in that ballpark really focused on their defense."

Taiwan's Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) reacted to Colby's comments on March 12 when he said the government did "not have the capacity" to spend 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) annually on national defense.