CounterPunch.org
The recent provocative and unnecessary visit to Taiwan by Democratic Senator Pelosi may well be a turning point the US (and potentially, the world) will regret. No matter what the Senator and her supporters may think and say, this was not just an ordinary visit. If it had been an ordinary visit, Ms. Pelosi would have flown first class (or maybe a charter) across the Pacific surrounded by her regular security and travel staff. She would not have been flying in a military plane flanked by fighter jets, tracked by military-run tracking devices on the earth’s surface and in the sky, with everything enforced by extra navy warships and other military on higher alert than normal.
Indeed, the militaristic nature of the Senator’s trip highlighted the exceedingly more martial approach undertaken by the United States against China in recent years; an approach that has seemingly intensified since Joe Biden became president. Although some commentators and politicians might try and claim that Donald Trump would not have militarized the situation between China and the US if he were still in office, I find that opinion to be both naïve and ignorant of the moves taken by the Trump administration against China during his term. In fact, as the New York Times pointed out in its January 20, 2021 edition, “Among its final acts, the (Trump) administration declared that Beijing was committing genocide against Uighurs and other Muslims in a far western region. It held a video conference between a senior United States envoy and the president of Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing. And it jettisoned longstanding guidelines limiting exchanges with Taiwanese officials.” In other words, the Trump administration was instrumental in paving the way for Pelosi’s visit and the increased tensions that visit has provoked…
