House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.), 82, planned visit to Taiwan prompted a stern warning from Beijing that visiting Taipei would have severe consequences on U.S.-Chinese relations, already strained to the breaking point. While Pelosi’s visit was not confirmed, it was widely reported in the Asia Press, where Pelosi plans to visit Japan this weekend. With the Ukraine War raging, there’s growing concern about Beijing making a move on Taipei, the island nation China claims as sovereign territory. President Joe Biden is already juggling too much in Ukraine, knowing that China has not denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin. There’s growing concerns that if Putin can invade Ukaine, Beijing can do the same in Taiwan, the democratically free part of China leftover from the 1949 Maoist Revolution. U.S. officials have said they have Taiwan’s back but recognize only one China in Beijing.
When it came to former President Jimmy Carter, he signed the Taiwan Relations Act into law in 1979, recognizing only Beijing as China. Once Carter signed the Taiwan Relations Act, it superseded the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty that guaranteed U.S. military support from an attack from Communist China. Pelosi’s decision to go to Taiwan could not be more insulting to the Beijing, especially at a time when China has given the U.S. almost no support on Ukraine. Showing how bad U.S.-Chinese relations, China’s 68-year-old Foreign Minister Wang Yi said last week that NATO caused the Ukraine War by encroaching on Russian national security. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said Beijing strongly opposed any official U.S. contact with Taipei. Given the unstable situation in Europe, it’s inconceivable that Pelosi would try to rock the boat.
Zhao Lijian was the same person that told the U.S. that the novel coronavirus was made in America and planted in Wuahan by the U.S. military. Lijain went further saying the deadly virus was made at a bioweapons lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland. “If the United States insists on having its own way, China will take strong measures in response to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Al possible consequences that arise from this will completely be borne by the U.S. side,” Lijian said. Pelosi’s team certainly knows the low level of relations enjoyed by the U.S. and Beijing. Biden’s 59-year-old Secretary of State and 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan accused Beijing of genocide against Muslim Uyghurs March 18, 2021 in Anchorage, Alaska, helping wreck U.S.-Chinese relations. For Pelosi’s office to consider an official visit is astonishing audacity.
Beijing has been flying fighter jets over the Taiwan Strait for months, signaling to Taiwan that anything could happen with respect to Beijing taking over Taiwan. Taiwan Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Joanne Ou neither confirmed nor denied Pelosi’s visit, only saying that official visits have been part to U.S.-Taipei relations for 72 years. Unlike the original 1954 Sino-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty, the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act created strategic ambiguity regarding the U.S. role in protecting Taiwan. Successive generations since 1954 have provided Taiwan with the defensive and offensive weapons needed to protect itself from the Peoples Republic of China [PRC]. Pelosi’s decision to visit Taiwan shows complete tone deafness over the tense state of relations between the U.S. and Beijing. No House Speaker has visited Taipei since 1997 when House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) visited the island in 1997.
Biden White House officials have been walking on thin ice with Beijing. One bad move like Pelosi visiting Tawain could trigger a military response from Beijing. White House officials kid themselves thinking the U.S. is equipped to defend Taiiwan from a Beijing invasion. Teetering on WW III in Ukraine, Biden doesn’t want to rock the boat with Beijing, no matter what the historic ties with Taipei. China has left Taiwan alone for the last 72 years but claims the island as part of Mainland China. Pelosi spoke on Zoom in January with Taiwan Vice President William Lai, expressing U.S. support for the Republic of China [ROC]. China looks for any pretext to invade Taiwan, knowing the U.S. is in no position to defend the democratically independent island nation. Taipei appreciates U.S. support but knows there are limits what the U.S. could do to defend a Beijing invasion.
When Biden took office Jan. 21, 2021, he decided to slam China and Russia for human rights violations, especially China’s genocide of Muslim Uyghurs in Western China. While Beijing denied the charges, it didn’t stop the White House from making accusations of Uyghur genocide, crackdown in Hong Kong and harassment of Taiwan. Biden didn’t do much better with Putin, calling him a “soulless killer” March 18, 2021, setting a bad tone for U.S.-Russian relations. No one imagined that the U.S. would finance a Ukraine proxy war against the Russian Federation, essentially pitting Biden against Putin. When Biden said March 28 that Putin could not continue as Russian President, Putin got the consequences of the Ukraine War. When it comes to Taiwan, the White House is a razor’s edge away from triggering an invasion of Taiwan, something spurred on by the Ukraine War.
