U.S. Senator John Cornyn, the Republican senior senator from Texas who has served since 2002, on Monday tweeted the U.S. has 30,000 troops in Taiwan, which is false. The U.S. pulled out of Taiwan in 1979. America's current U.S. military presence in that country is reportedly just 30.
Cornyn sits on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees budgets for the civilian and military agencies that comprise the intelligence community, and as such would be expected to know that the 30,000 figure was false.
CNN fact checker Daniel Dale caught the false tweet. He notes it was up for more than 13 hours before being deleted.
The tweet appears to be part of Cornyn's attack on President Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan. Cornyn is very active on social media, frequently tweeting out news reports and his opinions throughout the day.
The Chinese Communist Party's daily English-language tabloid Global Times used the opportunity to lash out at the U.S. – or mock Cornyn: "If the tweet is correct, it is a military invasion and occupation of China's Taiwan and equivalent to the US declaring war on China."
Cornyn, who in April complained that President Biden was not tweeting enough, was once the second-highest ranking Republican in the Senate, serving as Majority Whip until 2019.