Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) on 2 August 2022. She is the highest-ranking American politician to visit the close U.S. ally since Newt Gingrich, a Republican, traveled there 25 years ago when he was House speaker. Pelosi’s visit points to the weakness of the United States’ Taiwan policy. Bonnie Glaser and Zach Cooper have aptly called the policy “strategic confusion,” and Pelosi’s visit is a symptom of that confusion. The president says there’s a commitment to Taiwan when there isn’t one; the White House immediately walks back his statements. The president calls Taiwan independent, and the secretary of state calls Taiwan a country (twice), even though the United States is officially neutral on Taiwan’s status under the One China policy. The speaker of the House visits Taiwan and sparks a crisis with Beijing to show congressional support. The United States seems to be improvising its Taiwan policy, fueling Beijing’s suspicions about the United States’ true intentions and raising the risk of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
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Humphrey Bogart: Casablanca by Michael Curitz, 1942
thediplomat.com, James Lee and M. Patrick Hulme, 05.08.2022
theguardian.com, Helen Davidson, 02.08.2022
thediplomat.com, Associated Press, 22.07.2022