Nancy Pelosi’s expected Taiwan trip and her ‘hate-hate’ relationship with Beijing

In the year 1991, a relatively new Congresswoman from California, Nancy Pelosi stunned the Chinese authorities when she spread out a banner in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square dedicated to the pro-democracy student activists massacred there. A saga that started in 1991, continues to date.

Now the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is poised to travel to Taiwan during a tour of Asia nations this week, once again defying Beijing at a moment of extraordinary friction between the US and China – but also creating a host of problems for Joe Biden.

Pelosi has declined to confirm a visit, citing security concerns. But a stop in Taipei is now widely expected – probably on Tuesday – and has been confirmed to media outlets by officials in the US and Taiwan. ​

A visit by the House speaker, second in the presidential line of succession, would make Pelosi the highest-ranking US official to visit the self-governing island in a quarter-century.

China, which claims Taiwan as its own province, has threatened unspecified consequences for the U.S. if Pelosi makes the trip. In other words, Pelosi’s anticipated visit keeps both China and the U.S. on the edge.

This trip has both serious ramifications. The sharp warnings from Beijing, implying that the visit could provoke a military response from China, have Washington on high alert. The US military has made preparations to protect Pelosi during the visit, while officials scramble to interpret Beijing’s intimidation.

On a domestic level, this could mar the chance of a November re-election for Biden as the current issue would shift focus from his economic agenda.

Pelosi has a long history of discord with China. She has been one of the most outspoken critics of China. She opposed China’s bid to host the summer Olympics in 2008 and has pushed the U.S. to leverage its economic power to improve human rights and labour protections in China. Her advocacy helped ensure oversight of China when it joined the World Trade Organisation

During a visit to China in 2009, Pelosi hand-delivered a letter to the then president, Hu Jintao, demanding the release of political prisoners.

“She’s not viewing Taiwan through the lens of what’s happening right now,” said Daniel Silverberg, a former foreign policy adviser to House Democratic leadership. “She’s viewing it through the lens of a 30-year history of activism.”

Her diplomacy took on an even greater prominence during Donald Trump’s years as a counterweight to the former President’s isolationist policies.

Political observers feel that Pelosi’s early decades of advocacy have colored her view of US foreign policy. “If we don’t speak out against human rights violations in China for commercial reasons,” Pelosi has said, “we lose all moral authority to speak out for human rights anywhere.”