Nancy Pelosi has announced a plan to possibly visit Taiwan in August. Biden is against it and says the United States military is, too. Now, the Pentagon says it would send weapons of war with her if she goes.
China has promised retaliation against the United States if American politicians try and show support for Taiwan by traveling to the island. That hasn’t stopped Nancy Pelosi, however. She thinks America needs to show support for Taiwan.
The Speaker has even invited other congresspeople to go with her, despite Biden’s disapproval of a visit. She invited both Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as panel chair Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) to join her on the trip. While McCaul said he was unable to join Pelosi due to a scheduling conflict, he urged other Republicans to fly with the powerful Democrat in defiance of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
One Twitter user suggested some Republicans that should go with Pelosi saying “Now Pelosi is inviting Republicans to join her in Taiwan. I think she should take Cheney, Romney, McConnell, Kinzinger, and Murkowski.”
In the latest development in this story, “[o]fficials told The Associated Press that if Pelosi goes to Taiwan — still an uncertainty — the military would increase its movement of forces and assets in the Indo-Pacific region. They declined to provide details but said that fighter jets, ships, surveillance assets and other military systems would likely be used to provide overlapping rings of protection for her flight to Taiwan and any time on the ground there.
Pelosi would be the highest-ranking U.S. elected official to visit Taiwan since 1997 and the Pentagon says the trip would require extra levels of security due to China’s aggressive statements. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., traveled there 25 years ago when he was House Speaker.
United States officials do not believe China would directly attack Pelosi or somehow sabotage her visit if she confirms that she will go. “The biggest risk during Pelosi’s trip is of some Chinese show of force ‘gone awry, or some type of accident that comes out of a demonstration of provocative action,’ said Mark Cozad, acting associate director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the Rand Corp. ‘So it could be an air collision. It could be some sort of missile test, and, again, when you’re doing those types of things, you know, there is always the possibility that something could go wrong.’”
There is concern that the U.S. sending extra security for Pelosi’s trip could be misunderstood by the Chinese. “It is very possible that … our attempts to deter actually send a much different signal than the one we intend to send,” Cozad said. “And so you get into … some sort of an escalatory spiral, where our attempts to deter are actually seen as increasingly provocative and vice versa. And that can be a very dangerous dynamic.”
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This may be an instance where Biden is actually correct. Or is he just giving into a bully by telling Pelosi not to go? While the U.S. has real issues with China, we do not want to go to war with them. Especially just because Nancy Pelosi insists on going on a visit to Taiwan. Should she go?
