This week, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, arrived in Taiwan with congressional delegates on a visit that angered China which claims that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. China had warned of “serious consequences” if Pelosi went ahead with the visit.
Consequently, Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned U.S ambassador to China Nicholas Burns to protest Pelosi’s visit to China’s Taiwan. Also, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi issued a statement condemning the visit describing it as a serious violation of the “One-China” principle and a proof that “some U.S. politicians have become “troublemakers” of China-U.S. relations, and that the United States has become the “biggest destroyer” of peace across the Taiwan Strait and for regional stability,” read the statement.
Pelosi’s visit comes less than a week after US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held a more than two-hour video call. Analysist say the call between the two leaders was an effort to reduce tension between the two countries whose relations are the poorest they have been in the past several decades.
Indeed, while they have not made it official, just days to Pelosi’s visit, the White House and the Pentagon made little secret of their opposition to such a visit. In late July, while responding to a question about then-rumored Pelosi possible visit to Taiwan, President Biden was clear saying: “The military thinks it’s not a good idea right now. But I don’t know what the status of it is.”
While US’ National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that claims that in a video call with President Xi Biden had “made clear that Congress is an independent branch of government and that Speaker Pelosi makes her own decisions, as other members of Congress do, about their overseas travel,” one can argue that Speaker Pelosi’s decision is irresponsible and goes against the US’ commitment to respect “One-China” policy. As Edward Luce, the US editor of the Financial Times noted in his July 22nd opinion, while protestations of US constitutional niceties – that Congress is separate to the executive, speaker Pelosi belongs to the same political party as the President; “Pelosi may think she is acting on principle. She is in fact exhibiting the exorbitant irresponsibility of the U.S. legislator – power without responsibility; the self-indulgence of a figure whose job it has never been to pick up the geopolitical pieces,” Edward Luce argued.
Again, one can argue that Speaker Pelosi’s Taiwan visit offers scholars of International Relations and Geopolitics an interesting realpolitik case. It shows us what happens when party politics trumps national security interests. It shows us what happens when tactical goals overshadow strategic objectives of a country. One can add that it gives us a glimpse of what happens when politicians at the end of their careers seek a final validation for their own ego rather than for the sake of the collective wisdom.
The tragedy with such is that any mistake can result into confrontation and possible conflict which would not only destabilise Indo-Pacific but entire world.
That said, the US policy toward Taiwan has for years been deliberately ambiguous. In 1979, China and the US signed communiques which resulted into normalisation of relations between the two countries. In these communiques, Washington committed to recognize “One-China” policy and de-recognised Taiwan. In what seems to be a deliberate ambiguity, Washington again says is also committed to providing Taiwan with defensive support which is itself a contradiction that Washington is willing to sale defensive arms to Taiwan which it derecognized as independent in 1979 as it committed to “One-China policy.”
While Speaker Pelosi claims that her visit to Taiwan is meant to “honour our commitment to democracy: reaffirming that the freedoms of Taiwan – and all democracies – must be respected,” when well analysed, Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is simply meant to extend US’ interests in the region as well as spreading Washington’s failing hegemony in the region as US continues nurturing its open secret of countering China’s growing influence.
From historical context, the logic that guides major powers like the US is simple, it is the logic of power. It is not protecting the so-called “democracy and freedoms or our values,” nor is it about international laws and norms or sovereignty as the US claims.
Also, important to note is that Pelosi’s Taiwan visit is a cobweb of politics. The visit came just three months to US’ Mid-Term elections where recent ABC News polls indicated that Republicans are 83 per cent favoured to win the House with Democrats chances of winning the house at just 17 per cent. It also comes at a time when the US congress is divided than ever with the house failing to reach a consensus on domestic key issues such as spending, gun regulations and abortion. Therefore, one can argue that speaker Pelosi hopes that by playing Taiwan card and showing she can flex muscle with Beijing, she can bring consensus to her divided house and her party win support which would give the 82 years old speaker another chance to keep her position.
Allawi Ssemanda, PhD is a Senior Research Fellow at a foreign policy think tank, Development Watch Centre.
