The speaker of Taiwan’s parliament spoke at a discussion board for worldwide spiritual freedom in Washington on Wednesday and careworn the significance of defending the island’s democracy in the face of strain from China.

In an tackle to the International Religious Freedom Summit, You Si-kun sharply criticized Beijing’s suppression of spiritual minorities and described Taiwan as the one democracy in the Chinese-speaking world.

He additionally careworn the self-ruled, however Chinese-claimed island’s strategic significance on the heart of key international sea lanes and as a key producer of semiconductors.

“So it’s essential to safeguard Taiwan, particularly its democracy,” he said.

“If Taiwan falls into the sphere of influence of CCP, then the beacon of democracy will be destroyed. And China may invade the first island chain, and will cause a threat to the entire world,” You stated, referring to China’s ruling Communist Party and its ambitions in the Pacific area.

Speaking via a translator, You stated that about 50 p.c of international transport used the Taiwan Strait between the island and China, “so it has essential financial significance for the worldwide commerce.”

“And … Taiwan has produced the best semiconductor chips and will be very important for global trade as well,” he stated. “So if Taiwan can’t be safeguarded very rigorously, it will likely be very harmful to international commerce in addition to international peace.”

You, who belongs to Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party but does not speak for President Tsai Ing-wen, is in Washington amid speculation that Republican U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy could soon visit the island.

In August, then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, visited Taiwan and met Tsai, defying warnings from China, which launched military drills around the island in response, raising fears that Beijing may carry out its threat to reclaim the island by force if necessary.

Since then, Taiwan has welcomed a wave of U.S. lawmakers, and speculation has swirled around whether McCarthy would travel there this spring or summer. McCarthy last year expressed interest in visiting Taiwan if he became speaker, a role he assumed in January after Republicans took control of the House in November’s midterm elections.

Like most countries, the United States has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

Washington has long stuck to a policy of “strategic ambiguity” and never making clear whether or not it might reply militarily to an assault on Taiwan. However, President Joe Biden stated in September that U.S forces would defend Taiwan in the occasion of a Chinese invasion, his most express assertion on the difficulty.

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