Thoughts On Pelosi's Taiwan Visit: China responded like a petulant child. Shockingly, many U.S. commentators parroted Beijing's absurd rhetoric.

• Author: Mastel, Greg

In August, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a delegation of Members of Congress to visit Taiwan. Speaker Pelosi's visit was courageous and historic because of her willingness to face down critics on both sides of the Pacific. Though the reaction to this visit was intense, Senators and Members of Congress have been visiting Taiwan for decades. Virtually every congressional recess sees Capitol Hill delegations winging their way to Taipei. Then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich visited Taiwan more than a quarter of a century ago. Beyond the reaction, nothing about this visit was truly unusual--just another visit by a congressional delegation to an allied government.

Beijing's extended petulant child imitation in response to the trip, however, was unusual even by the standard set by Chinese propaganda. In an unprecedented burst of pronouncements based on its "Alice in Wonderland" view of reality, Beijing through various spokesmen and official propaganda platforms declared Pelosi's trip to be a "dangerous provocation," used a seemingly endless number of threats employing the term "playing with fire," and threatened "grave consequences." This was stunning rhetoric, given that Beijing has in the months before and since the Pelosi trip sent more a thousand warplanes across the Taiwan Straits at Taiwan, threateningly maneuvered warships, and even fired ballistic missiles near Taiwan. After the visit, Beijing actually doubled down with a burst of aggressive military maneuvers amounting to a dress rehearsal blockade of Taiwan.

Perhaps even more tremblingly, a number of U.S. commentators seemed to parrot Beijing's absurd rhetoric by declaring that Pelosi's trip threatened to destabilize the decades-out-of-date "One China" policy and undermine regional peace and stability. These statements are made with seemingly little recognition that Beijing is a national adversary and by far the largest threat to peace in at least the Pacific. Sadly, the visit highlighted how many Americans, including those in current and former roles in the U.S. foreign policy/defense establishment, have allowed themselves to become de facto apologists for Beijing, arguing for the United States to concede to China seemingly with no recognition of the inevitable costs of caving in to a bully whether on the playground or across the Taiwan Straits.

ONE CHINA POLICY

The current situation between Taiwan and China is more than seventy years old and deeply shrouded in diplomatic...