America’s policy towards the island nation of Taiwan and democracy has been to act like it doesn’t exist to make Communist China happy….
For decades that has been it….
No more….
House Speaker Pelosi, the second person in line to succeed the American Presidency, if need be, has arrived in Tawian in-spite of American official’s worries and China’s threats…
Pelosi has always been unhappy with China’s actions on human rights and their authoritarian policies…
One cannot in-vision this happening without President Biden giving Pelosi a ‘nod’…..
China right now has enough issues….
Pandemic….
Declining economy….
Added to the fact that China does a shit load of trade with America….
The Chinese military maybe getting up in a huff….
But there isn’t gonna be armed conflict on this…
None of the parties involved can afford it…..
Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday, making the highest-level visit by a U.S. official in 25 years and setting up a tense standoff with China that could lead to more aggressive military posturing.
The trip prompted a sharp response from China, which bristles at any perceived challenge to its claims on self-ruled Taiwan. China had repeatedly warned Ms. Pelosi not to make the visit, while the United States warned Beijing not to turn the moment into a crisis.
In a statement released shortly after her arrival, Ms. Pelosi said the visit was a sign of America’s “unwavering commitment” to supporting Taiwan’s democracy. “America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy,” she said, adding that the congressional visit did not contradict United States policy on Taiwan.
Shortly after Ms. Pelosi’s arrival, China’s Foreign Ministry condemned the trip. The visit, it said in a statement, “seriously undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, seriously undermines the political foundation of Sino-U.S. relations and sends a seriously wrong signal to the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces.”
A separate statement issued by the Chinese Communist Party’s Taiwan Affairs Office said any attempt to seek independence by Taiwan would be “shattered by the powerful force of the Chinese people.”
Long a sore issue in a troubled U.S.-China relationship, Taiwan — which has its own military and democratically elected government — has emerged as the front line in a geopolitical showdown over influence and power in Asia.
Under Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader in decades, Beijing has taken more aggressive military actions in the region and recently made strong claims over the strait separating Taiwan and China, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Mr. Xi has called for unification with Taiwan as part of China’s national rejuvenation, even potentially by force.
The United States has sent a steady stream of senior officials to show solidarity with Taiwan. Recently, President Biden has said he would act to defend Taiwan in the event of a conflict, but White House officials have repeatedly walked back those statements, saying a longstanding policy of “strategic ambiguity” on the defense of Taiwan remains in place.
After a nearly two-and-a-half-hour phone conversation between Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi last week, China warned that the United States was “playing with fire” if it allowed the speaker’s visit to take place….
Update…
In a rare show of bipartisan unity, more than half of the U.S. Senate’s Republican members released a statement on Tuesday supporting Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for defying Chinese threats and landing in Taiwan on an official visit.
image….Financial Times
Tim O’Brien
@TimOBrien
So much moaning about Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. I don’t remember hearing all of this whining when Senators John Cornyn, Mike Crapo, Mike Lee and Tommy Tuberville visited Taiwan last year.