As my post on Wednesday shows, I was among the few liberals who urged Speaker Nancy Pelosi to defy China by going to Taiwan. I did so because I knew not only that China’s fiery rhetoric was just hot air, but also that Taiwan’s democracy was doomed if China could bully even the United States into abandoning it so publicly.
Women emasculating men
Pelosi went, and her visit was a triumph. But, in going, she not only defied Chinese President Xi but emasculated US President Biden.
It’s easy to see Russian President Vladimir Putin now playing Iago egging Xi on as Othello. This, as he tries to get Xi to back up his fiery rhetoric with military action – well, because misery loves company.
And you could hear the chauvinistic Putin telling Xi he can’t let two women (Pelosi and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen) defy him with impunity on the world stage like this. Never mind that two women defied Putin himself in even more humiliating fashion by having their respective countries, Finland and Sweden, join NATO. But if you’re looking for honor or consistency in autocrats, you’re going to find yourself rummaging down a deep black hole…
Xi’s revenge
Now Xi is doubling down on his petulance. Never mind that, by doing so, he is only making himself look weaker and Pelosi look stronger.
He has ordered sanctions imposed against Pelosi. Except that this is the diplomatic equivalent of a woman scorned reacting to her lover dumping her by shouting, “I don’t love you anymore!”
More ominously, though, Xi is threatening a blockade of Taiwan. This, notwithstanding the prohibitive precedent the US set with its feckless 50-year embargo of Cuba…
But the US says it fears China could impose a full blockade within 18 months. Except that the sum of US fears should lead it to:
- arm Taiwan to the teeth over the next 18 months – so that it becomes even more of a porcupine for China than Ukraine is proving to be for Russia;
- wean America and the rest of the world off everything Taiwan produces (which the CHIPS legislation aims in part to do); and
- fortify all Western economies – in every possible way – to decouple from their “slavish” reliance on China’s.
I cannot overstate how, far from making China look strong and dreaded, Xi’s reaction to Pelosi’s visit is making it look weak and dreadful.
Nothing affirms this quite like today’s report about Xi declaring that China will no longer cooperate with the US on climate change. After all, the whole world knows China refusing to do so will hurt China even more than the US. So what’s the friggin’ point.
Biden’s shame
Biden didn’t oppose Pelosi’s visit. But he did not support it either.
Instead he did what you might’ve expected a waffling wimp like Donald Trump to do. He skirted responsibility by saying the military did not think it was a good idea for Pelosi to visit – as if someone else is commander in chief.
Whereas his no-brainer response to the all-too-predictable question about Pelosi’s visit should have been something like this:
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Of course Speaker Pelosi should visit Taiwan – as US delegations have been doing for decades.
Now I know everyone in the media is getting all excited about fiery rhetoric in the Chinese press about her visit. But I’ve had more meetings with President Xi than any other Westerner. He’s a very intelligent and confident leader. So it’s an insult to his leadership to think that he would threaten war with the United States, China’s most important trading partner, just because one of our most respected politicians is making a routine visit to Taiwan – which everyone recognizes as a self-governing part of China. I mean, not only would that make no sense, but it would make China look weak and insecure.
Anyway, I’ll be chatting with President Xi later this week and I’m sure he and I will sort this little matter out in no time before moving on to far more important stuff. Speaking of which, how about that Inflation Reduction Act…
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Trust me, if Biden had responded like that, he would have given Xi the cover he needed to save face.
More to the point, it would have defused the bombs Xi is now blowing up all over the Taiwan Strait to “punish” America, in North-Korean-masturbatory fashion, for violating its sovereignty.
What a farce!