By Daniel L. Davis
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has landed in Taipei for a meeting on Wednesday with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. The trip has already drawn an unusually high degree of angst and threats from Beijing. U.S. military assets continue to steam toward the Taiwan Strait, and reports from Chinese media this morning indicate that Chinese military assets appear to be mobilizing in Fujian province, directly opposite Taiwan.
Whether this situation explodes into a full crisis or not is yet to be determined, but the United States has taken a significant risk in moving forward with this meeting. It may have set up an avoidable crisis.
What Is the Interest at Stake?
It should be a basic tenet of U.S. foreign policy that any action, decision, or engagement has the best interests of the United States as its central focus. Safeguarding our national security is the top priority, and a very close second priority is ensuring our ability to prosper economically. This trip by the speaker of the House not only fails to advance either objective – it comes perilously close to putting both at risk.
We already have a security agreement in place with Taiwan by which the U.S. helps Taipei defend itself, providing hi-tech weapons, military training, and access to other defense-related capacities. We have for years provided Taipei with state-of-the-art military gear – fighter jets, missiles, and tanks – but there is no agreement like NATO’s Article 5 provision in place that would require the United States to physically defend Taiwan. There is a good reason for this.
This piece was originally published in 1945 on August 2, 2022. Read more HERE.