My Take | Nancy Pelosi has put her president in a bind
- If the Democrat House speaker does go to Taiwan, the visit will escalate the already worsening relations between China and the US. If she cancels now, she and Biden will be painted by Republicans as caving in under pressure from Beijing ahead of the midterm elections in November
Nancy Pelosi’s planned visit to Taiwan has become an own goal by the Democrats and the Joe Biden White House. Whether the Democrat speaker of the House of Representatives ends up going next month, it’s a lose-lose situation for her and her president.
If she now cancels the trip, not only herself but the Biden administration will be seen as caving in to Chinese communist pressure. Biden, after all, has hitherto spent his time in office posing as being tougher on China than any Republican leader.
Hence his sheepish response when asked about her travel plans: “The military thinks that it’s not a good idea right now, but I don’t know what the status of it is.”
There it was, the commander-in-chief pretending to defer to the judgment of subordinates at the Pentagon.
You could almost feel his embarrassment. What was Nancy thinking?
But if Pelosi does go ahead, the visit will more than likely take the already worsening confrontation between China and the United States to the next level, with possibly unpredictable but dire consequences, not just for both countries but especially for Taiwan.