Could China hawk Nancy Pelosi’s pick for US Congress influence Beijing ties?

While local bread-and-butter issues will dominate the November election in the US, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s endorsement of Connie Chan to succeed her in Congress could lead to opportunities at the margins of US-China relations, analysts said. Pelosi, the first female speaker, now honoured as speaker emerita, is one of Washington’s fiercest China hawks. Chan, 47, a San Francisco supervisor, is a progressive of Chinese ethnicity. According to observers, Chan’s candidacy opens up a range of possibilities, from introducing “a narrative different from Washington’s simple confrontation” to preserving vital local-level ties between the two countries. Chan advanced last month to the November run-off for California’s 11th Congressional District, finishing 11 percentage points behind State Senator Scott Wiener in the top-two primary. The two will compete for a coveted House seat that has not been open for nearly 40 years. Pelosi, who first entered the House in 1987 and stepped down from the speakership in 2023, announced last year that she would not seek re-election. Her Congress career ends in January. Last month, Chan rejected a 15-debate challenge from Wiener, which included a dedicated showdown on foreign policy. Chan’s campaign dismissed Wiener’s challenge as self-promotion and signalled a strategy that would be focused strictly on local grievances. Bay Area political analyst David McCuan, who is also a professor of political science at Sonoma State University, observed that geopolitical ideological battles would not win elections in San Francisco, where voters were consumed by “kitchen table” anxieties. Chan “requires a broader coalition for success in November”, McCuan said, pointing to younger, progressive voters who were “worried about the cost of living and affordability over geopolitical issues for sure”. While Chan’s campaign is focused on local issues, there will be no escape from Washington’s ideological fire and the federal anti-China consensus once she enters Congress. But Chan, who was born in Hong Kong and lived in Taiwan for nearly a decade, has adopted a softer tone than Pelosi, whose visit to the self-ruled island in 2022 was condemned by Beijing as a provocation. Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise the self-ruled island as an independent state. However, Washington is opposed to any attempt to take Taiwan by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons. According to campaign spokeswoman Julie Edwards, Chan “feels a heightened responsibility to be thoughtful about foreign policy, particularly as it relates to Taiwan”, adding that she would “always work for peaceful resolution of conflict”. Chan’s campaign website says that Washington and Beijing “can engage with one another through mutual respect, accountability and peaceful coexistence”. At a March forum, she said the US should “encourage direct dialogue” between Beijing and Taipei. Sun Chenghao, a senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy, said the contrast between Pelosi and Chan illustrated that “the behaviour of American politicians in local elections is not always driven entirely by foreign policy ideology”. Pelosi’s endorsement was “primarily rooted in the realities of San Francisco district politics, the continuity of the Democratic establishment, labour and community alliances, and the need to prevent party divisions”, he said. “US policy towards China is highly ideological, but American electoral politics remain deeply pragmatic.” Sun noted that Chan’s background could indirectly influence the margins of US-China relations by “at least providing US Congress with a narrative different from simple confrontation”, even though competitive toughness remained mainstream. “The more tense US-China relations become, the more local-level pragmatic cooperation requires ‘translators’ and ‘buffers’,” he added, suggesting Chan might help preserve space for collaboration in low-sensitivity areas such as education, climate and public health. Still, Sun cautioned that Chan’s ability to maintain consistency on sensitive issues like Taiwan and technology would be critical in Congress. In April, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie visited Shanghai, signing a sister-city memorandum to mark the 46th anniversary of the partnership. “Given ongoing tensions with the [Donald] Trump administration, it is natural for more city-to-city relations to become the focus, especially across California,” McCuan said. “The [November] winner will work hand in hand with the San Francisco mayor to continue to grow such subnational diplomacy. It is a natural extension of what is already happening, slowly, today.”

Could China hawk Nancy Pelosi’s pick for US Congress influence Beijing ties?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Connie Chan is strictly focused on local issues but her softer tone towards China is in sharp contrast to that of the retiring former speaker

Connie Chan is strictly focused on local issues but her softer tone towards China is in sharp contrast to that of the retiring former speaker