WASHINGTON: Republican hardliners are taunting the Biden administration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for ostensibly backing down from an official Congressional visit to Taiwan in the face of China’s blunt threats, saying such blinking will embolden, set the tone for future relations, and demoralize US allies in the region.
“To allow America to be bullied by Chinese propaganda, right after President Biden has had a … long phone call with Xi Jinping … would send a really bad message to our friends in the region: The Australians. The South Koreans. The Japanese,” former US Secretary of State in the Trump administration said.
More forceful criticism came from Senator Tom Cotton, a influential lawmaker with a muscular outlook, who said backign down in the face of China’s threat “might in fact incite them and tempt them to go for the jugular in Taiwan.”
China has said US is playing with fire and will get burnt if Pelosi visits, but the country’s media mouthpieces have been more direct and militaristic in echoing the threat, including suggesting that her plane would be shot down.
Beijing’s mouthpiece Global Times invoked the China-India war to say “Don’t say we didn’t warn you!”. The phrase ?????? wù wèi yán zhi bù yù which according to Chinese lore is seldom used by the country’s leadership was used by the People’s Daily in 1962 before China was fought a border war with India and ahead of the 1979 China-Vietnam War.
“To allow America to be bullied by Chinese propaganda, right after President Biden has had a … long phone call with Xi Jinping … would send a really bad message to our friends in the region: The Australians. The South Koreans. The Japanese,” former US Secretary of State in the Trump administration said.
More forceful criticism came from Senator Tom Cotton, a influential lawmaker with a muscular outlook, who said backign down in the face of China’s threat “might in fact incite them and tempt them to go for the jugular in Taiwan.”
China has said US is playing with fire and will get burnt if Pelosi visits, but the country’s media mouthpieces have been more direct and militaristic in echoing the threat, including suggesting that her plane would be shot down.
Beijing’s mouthpiece Global Times invoked the China-India war to say “Don’t say we didn’t warn you!”. The phrase ?????? wù wèi yán zhi bù yù which according to Chinese lore is seldom used by the country’s leadership was used by the People’s Daily in 1962 before China was fought a border war with India and ahead of the 1979 China-Vietnam War.