WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began her political career by being tough on China, a new congresswoman who dared to unfurl a pro-democracy banner in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square during a 1991 visit with other U.S. lawmakers shortly after the student massacre.
More than 30 years later, her interest in traveling to Taiwan represents a powerful diplomatic finish. It also added to top-level tensions in Washington and Beijing among officials worried that a trip could prove provocative.
As the US balances its high-stakes relationship with China, it remains to be seen whether Pelosi will lead a delegation to Taiwan. But what is certain is that Pelosi’s decision will be a defining moment in foreign policy and human rights for the U.S. and its longest-serving House lawmaker.
“It’s part of who the speaker is,” said Samuel Chu, president of The Campaign for Hong Kong, a Washington-based advocacy organization.
“This is not a one-off, one-time publicity stunt,” said Chu, whose father was among those who met with Pelosi and US lawmakers three decades ago in Hong Kong. “Thirty years later, she’s still connected.”
Pelosi declined to divulge any updates on her plans for Taiwan on Wednesday, reiterating that she does not discuss travel plans as she normally does for security reasons. The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul of Texas, confirmed he had been invited to be part of Pelosi’s bipartisan delegation but was unable to join, although his office said it believed the speaker and others Americans should be able to visit Taiwan.
The Biden administration has declined to comment publicly on rumors of the visit, although the military is making plans to beef up its security forces in the region to protect her potential trip against a backlash from China. While U.S. officials say they have little fear that Beijing will attack Pelosi’s plane, they are aware that an accident, misstep or misunderstanding could jeopardize her safety.
It all comes as President Joe Biden is set to speak Thursday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the first time in four months, and Pelosi’s potential trip looms large over the conversation.
“There are always security issues,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, declining Wednesday to speak directly about the spokesman’s potential trip.
Since Republican Newt Gingrich led a delegation to Taiwan 25 years ago, the US House speaker, the third in a row for the presidency, has not visited the self-governing region, which China claims as part of and threatens to annex by force in a move the West would looked unfavorably on.
More than just a visit abroad, Pelosi’s trip will mark a foreign policy tie-in to her long career in Congress, as she increasingly points the speaker’s gavel outward, expanding her job description to include a role as America’s emissary abroad.
Especially during the Trump administration, when the former president challenged America’s commitments to its allies, and now together with Biden, the Democrat Pelosi presented himself as a world leader on the global stage – the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Kyiv, Pope Francis to the Vatican. and heads of state around the world.
“She absolutely has to go,” Gingrich told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday about Pelosi’s potential trip.
“She has always had a very difficult position going back to Tiananmen Square. And that’s one of those places where she and I actually agreed,” Gingrich said. “I think Nancy giving up would be a huge blow to Taiwan and would be a very dangerous signal trying to appease the Chinese Communists.”
Pelosi pointed to the value she sees in a potential visit, leading a delegation of U.S. lawmakers
“It’s important for us to show support for Taiwan,” Pelosi told reporters at her news conference last week.
“None of us have ever said we are pro-independence when it comes to Taiwan. That is up to Taiwan to decide.
Pelosi was newly elected to Congress when, in 1989, tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square against pro-democracy student protests.
Two years later, she joined more veteran lawmakers on the trip when they were briefly detained by police after unfurling a pro-democracy banner that read “To those who died for democracy in China,” followed by news reports. cameras.
“We’ve been told for two days now that there is freedom of speech in China,” she said in a video at the time.
The trip had a “profound and lasting” impact on Pelosi and became fundamental to her leadership style, Chu said.
Pelosi championed human rights in China, working against Beijing in 1993 as it sought to host the Summer Olympics, and she opposed its bid for the 2008 games. Over the years, Pelosi has tried to link China’s trade status to its human rights, working to ensure that China’s entry into the World Trade Organization comes with oversight.
Pelosi has often made physical gestures challenging China, including in 2009 when she hand-delivered a letter to then-President Hu Jintao calling for the release of political prisoners.
“China is a very important country,” she said on her return days later, marking the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square in a speech to Congress and outlining the importance of the country’s relationship “in every way” with the US
“But the size of the economy, the size of the country and the size of the relationship doesn’t mean we shouldn’t speak out,” Pelosi said. “I said that if we don’t talk openly about our concerns about human rights in China and Tibet, then we lose any moral authority to discuss it for any other country in the world.”
In Congress, lawmakers from both parties rallied around Pelosi’s potential visit to Taiwan, viewing the delegation’s trip as an important diplomatic mission as well as an expression of an equal branch of the US government.
“I understand all the sensitivity in the world, here’s a stark fact: If we let the Chinese tell us who can and can’t visit Taiwan, then Taiwan will be isolated,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, DNJ, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee . “We cannot allow the Chinese to do this. Now she will have to decide if it makes the best sense at this point.
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Associated Press writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.
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