Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. Speaker of the House and second in line to the presidency, has arrived in Taiwan with a congressional delegation onboard a Boeing C-40C aircraft. Her visit comes during a period of escalated tensions between the USA and China in which the Mainland has threatened “targeted military actions” for the high-level visit to an island it claims as its own.
Brushing Off Chinese Threats, Pelosi Arrives In Taipei On Boeing C-40C
The US Air Force Boeing C-40C, which is a military version of the popular 737 model, took off from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (SZB) near Kuala Lumpur earlier today to make the 2,000 mile journey to Songshan Airport (TSA) outside Taipei. While this would normally be a four hour flight, today it took seven hours because the flight plan took deliberate steps to stay clear of Mainland airspace.
Her flight, SPAR19, was so heavily tracked that it crashed Flightradar24:
Because of unprecedented sustained tracking interest in SPAR19, Flightradar24 services are under extremely heavy load. Some users may currently experience issues accessing the site, our teams are working on restoring full functionality to all users as quickly as possible. pic.twitter.com/dsFrlQ67zr
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) August 2, 2022
China has warned that there will be disastrous consequences for Pelosi’s visit, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian even threatening a military response:
“We would like to tell the United States once again that China is standing by, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will never sit idly by, and China will take resolute responses and strong countermeasures to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
But the Biden Administration has pushed back, with a White House spokesperson noting:
“We have been clear from the very beginning that she will make her own decisions, and that Congress is an independent branch of government. Our Constitution embeds a separation of powers. This is well known to the PRC, given our more than four decades of diplomatic relations. The speaker has the right to visit Taiwan, and the speaker of the House has visited Taiwan before, without incident, as have many members of Congress, including this year.”
In a recent gaffe, Biden claimed he would defend Taiwan if attacked, which was quickly walked back as the U.S. continues to abide by an ambiguous One China policy.
Pelosi and her colleagues did not make a special trip to Taiwan. They are on a much longer Asian trip to promote economic development and U.S. interests in the region, including stops in:
- Japan
- Malaysia
- Singapore
- South Korea
This represents the first visit of a House Speaker since Newt Gingrich visited in 1997. Taipei 101, Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper, lit up with a message in English and Chinese welcoming Pelosi to Taiwan.
CONCLUSION
Speaker Pelosi and her colleagues have touched down in Taipei and have been welcomed by Taiwanese officials. Her choice to defy Beijing by visiting Taipei is sure to further sour relations between the USA and China, but what exactly China will do remains to be seen. In the last few minutes it has vowed, “targeted military actions” in response, so fasten your seatbelts.
Not a Pelosi fan but I do admire the “Or you’ll do what?” on China.
I hate CCP but this was ill advised visit. It gains nothing, loses a lot and the outcome is uncertain.
If you are already well prepared for war then you can poke CCP repeatedly to provoke them and defeat them. Until then, what’s the point?
Also i hope if/ when any war breaks out all the countries attack china from all sides. China is a bully that picks on countries one by one and is too powerful by itself. But all countries together can finally bring freedom to china.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YuSdVKUUZ4g
Fyck xi Jinping
I don’t understand why she needs to go there. Rattling the cage of the Chinese will ultimately cause must more cost than any benefit from her “economic development” dog and pony show. If it was the President, VP or some Ambassador I’d get it but the Speaker doesn’t need to be going there.
If you look at House Stock Watcher where they track the stock trade of everyone in congress, Pelosi sold a lot of her shares in Nvidia a few days ago before this trip and Nvidia makes most of their chips in Taiwan.
I don’t understand the implication here.
The Pelosi’s sold their holding of Nvidia stock at a loss last week.
My understanding is that Nvidia does not make its own chips in Taiwan, but instead buys a lot of its chips from Taiwan Semiconductor, which is a separate company, located in Taiwan. Apple, which the Pelosi’s have also bought and sold over the past year also buys a lot of chips from Taiwan Semiconductor– maybe their biggest customer even.
Does any of this explain why Pelosi is going to Taiwan right now? Is she looking for the $300k she lost on the Nvidia trade at the Taiwan Semiconductor headquarters?
Let’s be real. She has political power, she and her husband invests a lot in the stock, and it’s an open secret that she gets crème de la crème info that made her Wall Street Trader of the year in 2021.
There are massive implications of the chip industry if there’s war between China and Taiwan due to Taiwan’s massive role in the industry. People like her sell stock at a loss to avoid a larger loss in their investment later on because they heard something about the stock of this company plummeting later on and would like to minimize their loss while they’re at it.
I also want to say that I’m a black dem, but this is from strictly a neutral industry point of view. If this were reddit, I would go on and on about how congressmen and congresswomen trade and etc but this is a travel forum, so I’ll leave it here.
I still don’t understand why she has to go to Taiwan right now.
Your comments don’t provide a clear answer, just redirect the question to the accusation that some congresspeople likely trade inappropriately. I’m fine with that accusation, it’s probably true.
Still, I can’t even tell if your position is that Pelosi is going to Taiwan to prevent a war, or to provoke one.
I’m suggesting that there might be other reasons to her visit as politicians who trade stock try to do what’s best for their own investments. Based on news articles she’s apparently there to support Taiwan, which naturally pisses off China, but because I’m not a political analyst, I wouldn’t know the real reason for her visit. Also, this is a travel blog forum so I don’t need to talk about politics every day.
There needs to be care in this though. My particular slant on Putin is that his attack on Ukraine was heavily influenced by his own “issues” in feeling that other countries didn’t take him seriously enough or “respect” Russia in the same way as the U.S, China, or even Britain. I am not saying he deserved any respect, he is a demented and sick human being, but all the more reason to tread carefully so as to avoid reactionary responses. China could very well use this as an excuse to do what we will all know is coming eventually. And what better time then now when economies are teetering, Covid is still raging, oil and food supplies are critically short in many countries…Pelosi’s visit may be just the “excuse” they need to move in to Taiwan with military force. Xi would love nothing more than a war to distract growing frustration in China. I don’t even want to imagine the inflationary strains on the rest of the world this would create.
With that said, there is a part of me that loves the “Screw you” China attitude being shown. There is an argument for having displayed a position of strength. And you know full well that if Biden told her not to go she would have obliged. So far this is well-played diplomacy.
I am unaccustomed to having Beijing dictate our foreign policy and have no plans to begin accepting such dictates. Let us shun pretense for a moment and accept that there really are two Chinas, and proceed from there with a plan based on fact rather than euphemism, threat, and hyperbole.
President Biden should test the waters by flying to Singapore or some near there and have to land in Taiwan for a medical emergency involving an aide. Drop them off, wait for an hour. Maybe have a mayor or slightly high government official welcome them, then depart.
A few years ago, a US Navy F/A-18 fighter jet landed in Taiwan because of a mechanical problem. It was fixed after a few days and flew off.
What a waste of taxpayers $$$$
Not a waist of taxpayer money. I’m no fan of Pelosi’s but I will say she had more guts and gumption than do nothing Biden who coward in the face of pressure from Beijing and told Pelosi publicly not to go.
When a foreign power or an individual connected to said foreign power threatens to shoot down the plane of the individual who is second in line to the Presidency, the President of the United States should not respond by telling the Speaker of the House to not go. This is the exact reason why people on both side want Biden out in 2024. He has no backbone at all and when threaten by Beijing he publicly tells the Speaker not to go. I’m glad Pelosi went to Taiwan, in my opinion (not that it matters) Taiwan is an independent country and Beijing is a bully. And the best way to deal with a bully is not cowering which is what Biden did but to stand up to them and let Beijing know the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America does not answer to you. Now if Beijing wants to escalate things then the United States stands ready to defend itself.
But in reality what can Beijing do? Have a temper tantrum in the South China Sea? After what Beijing pulled in Hong Kong by violating a concrete agreement over Hong Kong sovereignty I think the world has had enough of Beijing and their antics.
If Biden didn’t want her to go, trust me, she wouldn’t. This was all carefully planned and played out. This is how diplomacy works.
The House of Representatives does not answer to the White House. They are not subordinates to the White House they are an equal branch of government. The President has no power to stop or control any member of Congress. We have three separate yet equal branches of government in this country.
The President didn’t want Pelosi to go but just like she doesn’t answer to Beijing she does answer to Biden either. When you have Republicans in both the House and Senate praising Pelosi for having the guts to go (they did criticize her for the trip not being bipartisan) while the President publicly stated she shouldn’t go that is a problem.
I’m glad she went, at least in this situation she has more backbone than Biden. Now the White House is scrambling because a member of the Presidents own party just made him look weak on the world stage. It is one thing for Republicans to say Biden is weak and a national embarrassment, but when the Speaker of the House, a member of your own party actually stands up to and defies Beijing when the President of the United States caved in to Beijings demands all I have to say is good luck President Biden in 2024. I don’t see how he gets reelected and Democrats would be a fool not to have someone challenge him for the nomination.
I’m sorry to say this so bluntly, but you’re wrong. Sure, in a classic sense Pelosi does not answer to the President. But if Biden, given their shared party affiliation, had demanded she not go she would not have. Period. This entire scenario was orchestrated to allow the Chinese an opportunity to “save face.” At the same time, it allowed us to give a clear message to Taiwan and allies via the second in line for the Presidency that “we will defend you.” It was a beautifully orchestrated plan, the administration can tell China that Biden never approved this, and that Pelosi acts on her own, while still sending a bold message to the region and minimizing reactions from China (if they choose to) with a face saving fall back. This is how you adult in international politics. Unlike the previous four years.
Reality is Ukraine war is going to drag on for years and the American taxpayer will be paying for it. The argument that China will invade Taiwan if the Ukraine war is not continuously funded needs some strength. This visit is purely to bolster that argument and push the next bill in congress. The war in Afghanistan that has ended was a raging success for the military-industrial complex and needs new conflicts to replace.
Meanwhile the one you slurp – https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/11/21/g20-meets-on-coronavirus-as-trump-makes-298th-golf-trip-of-presidency/?sh=53c9a62f46d0
To all those thinking that this increases the risk of China taking action against Taiwan, you vastly underestimate the sophistication of the CCP. They’re going to take action against Taiwan on their preferred timeline (if at all). This does nothing to move any such timeline.
And frankly, good for the US to do this. This is far less precipitous than the Chinese literally building islands in the South China Sea and putting military bases on them. Those sorts of action deserve at least token responses.
Forever!
USA Forever! Amen.
Taiwan belongs to mainland China, it’s always been part of China same way the ukraine has always been part of Russia.
Mainland China belongs to Taiwan.
They lost that war.
The KMT is on borrowed time.
And @koggerj has always been a child diddler
Er, no.