United States President Joe Biden took aim at his fellow Democrat party leader Nancy Pelosi over her planned trip to Taiwan.
The issue came to a head after Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi announced she would be making a trip Taiwan to show the support of the United States while China inches towards an invasion of the controversial territory.
China considers Taiwan to be a part of the Republic of China, while Taiwanese leaders and many foreign countries have maintained that Taiwan is its own country autonomous of Chinese rule.
Since the news of the surprise trip went public on Tuesday, the Biden Administration and United States Military has begun a public pressure campaign to try and get Pelosi to back off the trip.
Biden spoke out about the trip himself last week, telling reporters, “The military thinks it’s not a good idea right now. But I don’t know what the status of it is.”
Despite the aversion to the trip from President Biden and his military officials, Nancy Pelosi remained defiant of their warnings. She said they were only freaking because they were “afraid our plane would get shot down, or something like that, by the Chinese.”
Pelosi also doubled down on the importance of the still unconfirmed trip, saying, “It’s important for us to show support for Taiwan. None of us have ever said we’re for independence when it comes to Taiwan. That’s up to Taiwan to decide.”
The military believes that the trip by the House Speaker, which has been made my congressional members in the past, comes at a bad time as China gears up for a possible invasion. One US Pentagon official told Politico, “it looks like a military operation” staged to oppose the Chinese military.
China has also promised retaliation against the United States if American politicians try and show support for Taiwan by traveling to the island.
The United States has provided Taiwan with money and weaponry for decades to help them maintain independence from China. In recent years China has shown more military aggression and a desire to expand their borders, recently reclaiming Hong Kong under Communist Party rule. Should the US stand up and try to stop China from taking Taiwan like Biden suggests or is Pelosi right to take a strong stance against China at this key point in history?
