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Against all odds, this afternoon, Tuesday August 2, 2022, Ms. Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives arrived in Taipei, capital of Taiwan – which is part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). See this as reported by the NYT as BREAKING NEWS.
Ms. Pelosi is the highest ranking US official visiting Taiwan in 25 years.
Her visiting Taiwan happened despite the 2-hour phone conversation just a few days ago, between US President Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping. President Xi warned Biden: “Who plays with fire, will be burnt by fire.” Apparently to no avail.
What will be the consequences?
What is amazing though is the fact that China did not intervene in Ms. Nancy Pelosi’s visit. China could have scrambled a couple of military aircraft to guide Pelosi’s aircraft to a forced landing and then proceeding to arrest her. She entered Chinese territory without permission.
Source: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Facebook
In the US, an illegal entry could end up with imprisonment.
Remember when in December 2018, Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, was detained in Canada, at the request of the US. Ms. Meng Wanzhou was under house arrest by the Canadian authorities and freed by Canada after three years.
Why did China not apply similar standards for Ms. Pelosi?
It would have been a peaceful, yet extremely embarrassing situation for the United States.
China could have jailed her, or alternatively, in a gesture of good will, sent her straight back to Washington.
In a UN Resolution, passed on 25 October 1971, the United Nations recognized the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as “the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations” and removed “the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek” from the United Nations. Thus, recognizing that Taiwan was an integral part of the PRC.
Washington followed suit, recognizing the PRC as the sole representative of China following the Joint Communiqué of the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China, also known as the Shanghai Communiqué (1972) signed by President Richard Nixon and Chairman Mao Zedong
Were there some behind the curtain arrangements between China and the US?
Or is this the first step to a much more serious escalation of a conflict that has been simmering and even flaring up ever-so-often?
Time will tell.
China being a peace-loving nation, it will be interesting to observe how this conflict will pan out.
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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).
Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also is a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.
