House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Thursday that President Biden has not spoken to her directly about traveling to Taiwan and declined to confirm if she will be making the trip.
Media reports said earlier this week that Pelosi will visit Taiwan in August, drawing sharp warnings from Beijing against the travel plans. When asked if he thought the trip was a good idea, President Biden said, “The military thinks it’s not a good idea right now.”
Pelosi told reporters that she hasn’t heard anything from the president. “You’re telling me and I heard it anecdotally,” she said. “But I haven’t heard it from the president.”
Pelosi suggested that maybe the military worried China would shoot down her plane, but there’s no reason to believe that Beijing would even consider taking things that far. Pelosi declined to confirm if she was making the trip, citing security concerns, and said she never discusses her travel plans. “You never even hear me say if I’m going to London, because it is a security issue,” she said.
China has responded to recent congressional delegations visiting Taiwan by stepping up military activity near the island. But Pelosi’s visit will be more provocative than an ordinary senator or House representative since she is the House speaker, and Beijing said Thursday that it will take “forceful measures” in response. If she makes the trip, it will mark the first time in 25 years that a House speaker visits Taiwan.
A visit to Taiwan by a high-level official in the US government signals to Beijing that Washington is moving closer to abandoning the one-China policy. Pelosi tried to downplay those concerns and said she doesn’t support an independent Taiwan. “None of us has ever said we’re for independence when it comes to Taiwan. That’s up to Taiwan to decide,” she said.
My unpopular opinion (I’m sure) is that China should be treated as a very unscrupulous entity regarding business, IP, all related issues. China however has not historically wanted world domination militarily. China thinks China is great, the top, the sine quo non. But we can push it, just as we have with NATO and Russia, to believe it is existentially imperiled and it will do dangerous things.
I think the “IP theft” is blown way out of proportion by MSM. They have tons of skilled labor and operate as the world’s factory, but they buy all the chips and components they weld into an iPhone from other countries. The more we restrict chip sales, the more they will develop their own technology and one day completely supplant us. That’s the basis of all the China fearmongering behind MSM.
On the record of peace, you cannot even compare America and China. China is very much a force of stability and peace while we cannot go a week without bombing someone or a year without invading someone.
To amplify your comment. China has already taken the lead in such areas as solar panels, artificial intelligence, and is currently investing in the world’s most advanced microchips. It should be interesting to see if they will be as predatory as we have been about protecting trade secrets.
If you think the US or any other nation is scrupulous, you are being gaslighted. Perfidious Albion to Rumsfeld “making facts” and The Donald pulling out of the Iran Deal, there is nothing scrupulous on the other side from China.
China certainly has no monopoly on unscrupulous business practices.
Your belief that the US can use the same tactics against China as those used against Russia seems valid. Blinken/Biden seem to be using Taiwan in that manner right now. But did you intend that as a warning that the dynamic duo are 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 to provoke China? Or did you intend it to be a suggested course of action? (It could be taken either way.)
Nothing unpopular about that opinion. If IP is valuable and warranted, China has proven themselves as violators many times. But the means to do so was handed to them by Western businesses. I personally think IP is a rent-seeking racket, but take it if you can get it.
One of the things that fascinated me is that we are adamant about preventing China from having access to chip technology, while simultaneously encouraging Taiwan to do the same thing.
Is having Taiwan displace the American chip industry somehow less threatening than having China displace the American chip industry? Or are there, perhaps, specific individuals with influence over US policy who might profit from the success of one but not the other country?
How so..what proof is there other than the word of the US government which most of the time lies about everyone and everything that competes against it. Most of the hubris coming from intelligence agencies are fabricated.
Please provide any ounce of proof that China has built in secret backdoors into their IT, and software platforms. We hear all of the unfounded hubris from US intelligence agencies that are more propaganda than fact 99% of the time. The US is falling behind and needs a a scapegoat being China. China is not perfect with the US being far worse on many fronts.
Huawei is what your asking about, right? Interesting that many $$-losing G5 cell towers are near US military installations – eg, Malmstrom Airbase in Montana. Cell service for remote ranchers? (I can barely get service in downtown Palo Alto.) Article in Techspot July 21. China is in WTO but I don’t see any US cell towers in that country. I’m just saying China has been practicing shrewd business for a couple thousand years. As tech/material science evolve into “fun” new military capabilities, businesses make lots of $$. These goodies are eagerly snapped up by governments everywhere because…who doesn’t want the biggest newest fireworks? The cycle continues and expands. New technology, tragically, has been the historical way wars are won.
China can certainly send a couple of fighter jets to escort her plane and land it in China…!
I’d like to see them hold her as a prisoner, in violation of their laws for going to their territory. Keep her. Make the point. Otherwise, we are on the neocon road to war with them too.
Taiwan is not and never has been the PRC’s “territory.”
“Pelosi suggested that maybe the military worried China would shoot down her plane”
I don’t know what anyone else thought when they read that, but one word came to my mind. Please.
She seems to be asking to be treated as a courageous hero for wanting to go. Is she getting the Oscar next year? Tough competition with AOC wearing a jacket, not breaking a sweat in a heat wave (there for 2 minutes?) and pretending the cops handcuffed her.
This trip accomplishes nothing for peace and provokes China on their most sensitive red line. Why are we stirring up a hornet’s nest after seven decades of peace over the Taiwan Strait?
She needs a personalized engraved notice. Until then, she will remain unaware of public statements by the President, known to the press so that they ask her about it.
It is an old insult, “Do you need an engraved invitation.” She wants one.
It shouldn’t be necessary to tell Pelosi not to provoke China. Perhaps that will be something worth investigating when Republicans take back Congress in November.
Let her go and pray her plane runs out of fuel…she is an utter fiend and enemy to all Americans/the world. China is correct..these utter human garbage ruining our country should not be allowed to do whatever they want…and risk all of our lives…