(NewsNation) — There is one undisputed winner tonight in Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan… Nancy Pelosi. Beyond that who knows, seriously.
“These moves,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. “…like playing with fire, are extremely dangerous. The U.S. side will bear the responsibility and pay the price for undermining China’s sovereign security interests.”
That’s how wars start.
Right now the Chinese and American navies are eye to eye in an area about the size of Lake Michigan.
The Chinese say they are planning live fire drills starting tomorrow, completely surrounding Taiwan. That’s after Pelosi leaves. In the end, Taiwan will pay the price for her visit.
“I have a lot of respect for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But if she does go ahead with a visit to Taiwan this week, against President Biden’s wishes, she will be doing something that is utterly reckless, dangerous and irresponsible,” said the notorious liberal New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. “Nothing good will come of it.”
That’s not necessarily true. Friedman is seldom right but never in doubt. That said, he’s right this time: a lot bad could come of it.
A skirmish between U.S. and China on high seas would make Putin’s price hike look like an afternoon rain shower compared to a category 5 economic hurricane.
Matt Drudge topped his website, saying, “One giant step for freedom — Pelosi in Taiwan.”
That’s really only half a sentence. It’s only a step for freedom if that promise for freedom is backed up by President Biden, but it isn’t. In fact, he told her not to go. Which is a big change from promises over the past few months when he promised American military support of Taiwan.
A reporter asked Biden: “You didn’t want to get involved in the Ukraine conflict militarily for obvious reasons. Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?” To which Biden replied: “Yes. That’s the commitment we made.”
After each one of those the president’s staff walked it back. Here is the White House’s director of strategic communications John Kirby yesterday about Pelosi’s trip after a reporter asked: “Why did Biden bother with this drama from the beginning?”
“So, what’s the drama? These last couple of weeks, I mean, shouldn’t this question of, ‘Yeah, I’ve been here. The last couple of weeks. Have you seen a drama?’ I think, I think you’re manufacturing it with your question,” Kirby said.
China threatens war and we aren’t supposed to ask about it. Third in line for the presidency goes to Taiwan and we should ignore it. Remember, the president said she shouldn’t go.
“I think that the military’s experts don’t think it’s a good idea, but I don’t know what the status of it is,” Biden said.
Weakness and equivocation is what makes right now so dangerous. The Chinese don’t know what we will do, but they will find out, they will test us. There are no guarantees now: War with China over the next six days is a very real possibility.