Nancy Pelosi's rumored visit to Taiwan in the coming weeks has rung alarm bells in Beijing as well as Washington, while Taipei-caught once more in the crosshairs of rival powers-is keeping mum.
As both Joe Biden and Xi Jinping jostle for power in their respective capitals and for influence in the wider Indo-Pacific, the House speaker's plans are quickly becoming the first real test of the "guardrails" the American president has been trying to establish with his Chinese counterpart for the last 18 months.
Experts told Newsweek the Taiwanese government is right to keep a low profile-Taipei is yet to receive Pelosi's itinerary, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said-but few can safely predict the scale of the fallout that might ensue if Pelosi lands in the island's capital in August as part of her bipartisan congressional delegation's wider trip across Asia.
When it comes to dealings with the Chinese Communist Party, Pelosi, 82, has experience. The California Democrat has been a long-term critic of China's ruling party over its human rights record and its trampling of civil liberties in Hong Kong. In 2020, she claimed to be "the most hated American in China," a reputation she reinforced last year by becoming the first U.S. leader to back the eventual diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
via joemiller