Pelosi could spark ‘more serious’ Taiwan Straits crisis; China-US ties would fall off cliff if Washington intended to crash ‘guardrails’
Global TimesJul 19, 2022
On Wed., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reaffirmed a US commitment to Taiwan during a Presidential Office ceremony with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen, vowing not to abandon the self-ruled island despite Chinese threats.
Following a closed-door meeting with Taiwanese lawmakers, Pelosi and the US congressional delegation departed to South Korea, wrapping up the first visit of a sitting speaker to Taiwan in 25 years.
This visit isn't a miscalculation but an intentional provocation by the US. The US doesn't formally have any diplomatic relations with Taipei, but they do have formal diplomatic relations with China, and the visit to Taiwan contradicts the One China Policy and threatens PRC sovereignty.
As a global champion of democracy and human rights, it's only right that the US should support Taiwan and its democratic government. Any tension or military conflict caused by a visit by Speaker Pelosi to the island would be an outlandish escalation on China's part.
There is a 6% chance that there will be a military conflict between the PRC (China) and ROC (Taiwan) before 2023, according to the Metaculus prediction community.