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“U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi left Taiwan on Wednesday after touting its democracy and pledging American solidarity during her brief visit… China demonstrated its outrage over the highest-level U.S. visit to the island in 25 years with a burst of military activity in surrounding waters, summoning the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and halting several agricultural imports from Taiwan.” Reuters
Here’s our prior coverage of Pelosi’s visit. The Flip Side
The right generally supports Pelosi’s visit, and urges Congress to enact legislation pushing back against Chinese aggression.
“Far too many people have accepted the premise that the House speaker is responsible for heightening tensions in the region, rather than placing blame squarely where it belongs — on Beijing. While there was, prior to her arrival in Taipei, a legitimate debate about the timing of her trip, that window has since closed. Only Beijing is at fault for a gross overreaction to an American lawmaker exercising her prerogative to travel as she sees fit to a country where she is more than welcome…
“[Yet] Pelosi will have squandered her efforts if, when she returns to Washington, she does not get to work on a battery of counter-CCP legislation to boost U.S. efforts to arm Taiwan, punish Beijing’s human-rights atrocities, and unwind America’s inexplicable economic dependence on China. For all her excellent work in promoting Chinese human rights since the Tiananmen Square massacre, she has not sufficiently prioritized the China threat during her time as speaker…
“To take one example, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Gregory Meeks, who is with Pelosi in Taiwan now, has actively fought off sharp-edged legislation to counter the CCP’s political-influence networks. House Democrats also watered down the recently passed industrial-policy bill that had begun as a counter-CCP package.”
The Editors, National Review
“Pelosi’s visit was important for another reason: It reminded the White House that Congress is a co-equal branch of government. When White House priorities are skewed and when the State Department is sclerotic, prominent Senators and Representatives are correct to jumpstart a debate about what a proper US foreign policy should be. On China, at least, Pelosi has been consistent and willing to stand up both to Republican and Democratic administrations.”
Michael Rubin, American Enterprise Institute
Some argue, “There is no question that Pelosi is correct about the need for the West to support Taiwan, nor is there any question that China is an aggressive dictatorship. But Pelosi's trip represents the latest in a long line of American foreign policy moves that seem like bluster rather than strength. It's one thing for John F. Kennedy to fly to Berlin in the midst of a Cold War blockade of the city to show solidarity with Germans in the face of Soviet aggression, declaring that the United States would indeed defend West Berlin in case of invasion…
“It's another for Pelosi to fly to Taiwan in provocative defiance of Chinese caterwauling without any firm deliverable: no statement of American intention to defend Taiwan in case of invasion (President Joe Biden actually stated that America would do so, before his State Department then walked it back); no major increase in military aid to the island; no increase to the projective power of the United States Navy, which will purchase nine ships this year while losing 24. Pelosi's visit, therefore, sounds a lot like the virtue signaling in which American politicians of both parties have engaged for decades.”
Ben Shapiro, Creators
The left disapproves of Pelosi’s visit, worrying that it will exacerbate tensions with China.
The left disapproves of Pelosi’s visit, worrying that it will exacerbate tensions with China.
“I would love it if, instead of going to Taiwan, Pelosi had spent some time trying to persuade her party that it’s a good idea to actually set aside its determination to oppose all trade agreements and make some kind of trade agreement with Taiwan, or even try to get the U.S. back into a regional trade agreement, like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. What Taiwan needs from the U.S. is concrete action that enhances its security and helps it maintain a strong economy…
“The Pelosi visit to Taiwan was never a substantive thing. It was always a symbolic gesture; it was a show of support. From the first moment that they announced that it might happen, my question has been: What concrete benefit does Taiwan derive from this show of support that outweighs the predictable response from the P.R.C.? I have never heard anyone even try to articulate that.”
Shelley Rigger and Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker
“The US should consider carefully whether further symbolic gestures like Pelosi’s trip are worth the potential cost… China has a range of options available short of war — from cyberattacks and misinformation to a limited blockade — whereas Taiwan and the US have few means of countering such ‘gray-zone’ tactics without risk of escalation…
“The best way to maintain the island’s current status is to convince China that an invasion is unnecessary and unlikely to succeed… Abandoning the longstanding ‘strategic ambiguity’ over whether the US will intervene in a crisis is more likely to provoke than to deter China… US leaders should instead clearly reaffirm existing policy…
“[At the same time] The US needs to invest in new long-range anti-ship missiles, surface and undersea drones, and more resilient battlefield networks. It also needs to work with allies to establish more basing arrangements, so US forces aren’t concentrated in a few vulnerable locations across the Pacific… None of this would mean abandoning Taiwan or accepting Chinese claims over the island. It would mean being wiser about which fights the US chooses to pick with China — and what weapons it brings to the battle.”
The Editors, Bloomberg
“No American president has visited Taiwan since Dwight Eisenhower in 1960. No speaker of the House has done so since Newt Gingrich in 1997—and he did that as a Republican leader while a Democrat was president (no one could, therefore, interpret his move as subterfuge on behalf of Bill Clinton), and even Gingrich stopped off to see the Communist leaders in Beijing on the same trip. Pelosi is engaging in no such even-handedness…
“She is thumbing her nose at those leaders in an era when they have the power to make political, economic, and military counter-moves. And, though she says her intent is to redouble support for Taiwan at a time when Russia is trying to conquer Ukraine, her trip in fact makes life more dangerous for the Taiwanese—and possibly for Ukrainians.”
Fred Kaplan, Slate
