Nancy Pelosi and her audacious Taiwan trip plan!

The global defence preparedness went for a toss when Russia attacked Ukraine. The war, termed a ‘limited military operation,’ by Russia does not seem to end anytime soon. Russia has come closer to China since the Ukraine war, and the alliance seems to be getting stronger, with Putin calling the U.S.A. its primary adversary.

Be that as it may, Joe Biden, the American President, a relatively softer human being compared to a boisterous China-hating Trump, had to vacate Afghanistan, inviting much criticism from its NATO allies. He had to redeem the image, if not the supremacy of the United States, in the eyes of his allies and the world when Russia attacked Ukraine. His advisors must have advised against direct conflict with a trigger-happy Putin and exposing a Covid-battered America to yet another war, which was not theirs.

Biden, thus limited to helping Ukraine with arms and essentials while imposing sanctions on Russia. The boomeranging of the sanctions on the Ruble, strengthening the Russian currency than weakening as expected, is another story which hurt the policymaking machinery in the White House. Despite the destruction of cities after cities in Ukraine, its vital civil infrastructure and military installations, no European country has dared to join the war against Russia, despite contrary sloganeering and assurances to President Zelenskyy of Ukraine.

China and its allies have been quietly working on the absence of a western military oversight. Abe from Japan was killed, and the Australian PM Scott Morrison was defeated. Both were founder members of QUAD, besides Indian PM Modi and U.S. President Trump. So the U.S. had to act and act fast, if not to contain China, at least to show the world that it still considers China a threat to peaceful world order.

Amid this, Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. House speaker, has begun her Asia tour to Singapore, Malaysia. South Korea and Japan announced to visit Taiwan as well, rattling China. No senior American leader has visited Taiwan in decades, merely not to affront China. China fumed and warned the United States and is sending its fighter jets on endless sorties around Taiwan, which China considers a part of its country. An undeterred Pelosi would be meeting the Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday.

The Chinese spokesperson has warned that the U.S. would have to ‘face the consequences,’ as the U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reminded the Chinese against any immature manoeuvres, which will be met with force. Taiwan, the tiny island nation, is armed to the teeth, all its citizens vowing to lay their lives to safeguard their nation against a hegemonistic China.

It is difficult to gauge why Pelosi should plan a visit to Taiwan and stir up a hornets’ nest with its largest trading partner China. It could be a strange and true democracy at play, giving Pelosi the right to visit where she likes, despite the U.S. administration’s reservations or objections. Alternatively, Biden might have engineered the visit to provoke China to put the eastern bully in its place. The 31st of July precision drone attack in
Afghanistan with Hellfire R9X missile to take out Al-Zawahiri, the No.2 in Al-Qaida, who planned 2001, 9/11 attack with Osama Bin Laden, might not have been timed better to showcase the military prowess to selectively take out terrorists or enemies of the State, without launching a full-scale war.

There will never be a war between the U.S. and China, for the world cannot bear its consequences.

Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix