Although Joe Biden is not happy with Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and may not be able to stop it, it would be catastrophic if Pelosi were to make the trip anyway, current affairs analyst Hang Ziya wrote in a recent article.
Hang believes that even though China is not a military opponent of the United States in the global arena today, the United States may not have the military capability to defeat China in the Taiwan Strait, and if the two sides do go to war in the Taiwan Strait, China will certainly pay huge costs and sacrifices, and the country’s rise and recovery will be delayed for a long time due to war losses and sanctions, but it is almost inevitable that the United States will lose Taiwan from this point on.
Once the U.S. global hegemony is pierced by China in Taiwan, it will immediately collapse like a balloon full of air, thus surrendering the Western Pacific region and destroying to the greatest extent the core interests of the United States in the Indo-Pacific region.
Hu Xijin wrote in a recent post that the Chinese mainland probably has to thank Pelosi instead. She would create the opportunity for the PLA fighter jets to fly over the island of Taiwan and open up a new space for the PLA fighter jets to exercise sovereignty over the island of Taiwan.
So Joe Biden has a million reasons not to be happy with Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, but if he doesn’t pull some strings, even he wouldn’t be able to stop Pelosi.
The Chinese government is of course well aware of the Biden administration’s attitude of not being happy with Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, but for China, both Biden and Pelosi are representatives of U.S. interests, not to mention that they are both in the same party. So, no matter how Biden and Pelosi play internally or how they express themselves externally, the nature of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is the same for China, and it is unprecedentedly serious, trampling nakedly on China’s bottom line and destroying China’s core interests.
So Hu Xijin’s comment that PLA jets could accompany Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and fly through the island definitely underestimates the determination of Chinese officials.
If this were to happen, it is certain that there would be a wide range of political, military, and technical options between accompanying military flights across Taiwan and direct fire from the PLA. And each of these options would impress the Biden administration, the Taiwanese officials, and Pelosi herself.