Comment Days before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was expected to visit Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a request for President Biden: Find a way to prevent Pelosi from visiting. Xi’s request in a conversation with Biden on July 28, described by a senior White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive conversation, followed myriad warnings from Chinese officials to their U.S. counterparts about what could China is doing in retaliation for Pelosi’s visit to the self-governing island that Beijing considers part of its territory. But Biden told Xi he could not oblige, explaining that Congress is an independent branch of the government and that Pelosi (Calif.), as with other members of Congress, would make her own decisions about foreign travel, he said the official. Biden also warned Xi against taking provocative and coercive actions if the House speaker traveled to Taiwan, the official said. While defending Pelosi’s right to visit, however, top US officials expressed deep concerns about the trip, according to several senior administration and White House officials, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly. . The United States had seen signs in recent months that China was considering unprecedented military activity in the Taiwan Strait, and officials had seen signs that China would use Pelosi’s visit as a pretext to act, senior officials said. US officials also worried about the timing of Pelosi’s visit, which would come just before Xi seeks to secure a third term in office, and the geopolitical ramifications that could follow. Despite the Department of Defense, the United States’ Indo-Pacific Command and White House national security officials exposing the dangers, Pelosi went ahead with the trip, which prompted an unprecedented military response from China that included firing missiles at waters around Taiwan and over the island. — some missiles landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone — and military exercises that crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait. Plans by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to visit Taiwan could upset the cautious relationship between China, Taiwan and the United States. (Video: Julie Yoon, John Farrell/The Washington Post) Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan is the culmination of decades of challenges for China Pelosi’s visit, which some analysts criticized as a legacy move for her, frustrated administration officials and deepened tensions between the administration and the powerful House Speaker who is responsible for securing the president’s legislative agenda. However, Pelosi was unmoved by White House officials’ arguments. Administration officials have told her that China is likely to escalate its action in the region regardless of whether she visits, but could increase the timeline for doing so, two people briefed on the talks said. Pelosi defended the trip as necessary to show support for Taiwan, as well as democracy over autocracy, and hit back at critics who said she focused on her legacy. Taiwanese officials had also made it clear they were looking forward to Pelosi’s visit and welcomed her arrival with fanfare. “Support for preventing Taiwan’s isolation and maintaining the status quo is bipartisan and bipartisan,” Pelosi said in a statement to the Washington Post. “This respect for Taiwan and rejection of violence is shared by the President, as evidenced by his recent statements.” He added: “Any attack on me personally is not related to the President, but to some smaller anonymous voices within the administration who compromised the security of our visit by leaking the trip even before it was decided that we would actually visit Taiwan. These small anonymous voices must not indicate division between the White House and Congress over Taiwan.” White House officials have denied sharing any details with the media the trip and several officials said they felt publicity ahead of the trip was unhelpful, particularly because they were having private conversations with the speaker at the time about potential risks and did not want her visit publicized before it was finalized. “Members of Congress have been going to Taiwan for decades and will continue to do so. Speaker Pelosi had every right to go, and her visit is consistent with our longstanding policy of a one China,” said National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson. China’s expected reaction to Pelosi’s trip prompted intense diplomacy by the White House and State Department to reassure allies that the United States was not seeking conflict with China or changing its longstanding policies. Government officials assured allies in the region that they would not respond in kind to China’s belligerent military exercises and would defend allies in the Indo-Pacific. But the trip posed additional challenges to the US-China relationship, which was already at one of its lowest points in decades, as China said it would cancel or suspend dialogue with the United States on issues such as climate change, military relations and counter-narcotics efforts. US officials have said China is punishing the world by stalling climate talks, including with vulnerable nations in the Indo-Pacific. So far, administration officials have successfully lined up partners in the region and elsewhere — including Europe — to condemn China’s response to the trip, which the U.S. and its allies said was large and unprecedented. U.S. officials briefed allies on how they expected China to react and live-fire drills it might conduct to intimidate Taiwan and how the United States would respond, a White House official said, to ensure that the U.S. and their allies were “ready to speak with one voice” when China did escalate. Officials said they would engage in “strong diplomatic engagement” in the coming weeks and months “to maintain cross-strait peace and stability and continue our work to align with allies and partners in China,” the official said. White House, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Chinese officials made clear they saw Pelosi’s visit as an unprecedented provocation and saw it as a US effort to erode the one-China policy, a longstanding agreement in which the United States recognizes — without acknowledging — Beijing’s claim that there is only one China. While Biden and other White House officials stressed in Beijing that Congress is a separate branch of government and the trip was not state-sanctioned, Chinese officials considered Pelosi – a member of Biden’s political party and third in line for the presidency – as part of Biden’s political machine. They also noted that he traveled on a US military aircraft, which would not have been possible without the government’s signature. “The US claims China is escalating the situation, China is overreacting, and China is using Pelosi’s visit as a pretext to create a ‘new normal.’ But a key fact is that the US side has taken the first step to provoke China on the Taiwan issue,” Chinese Ambassador Qin Gang said at a briefing with reporters this week, noting that Chinese officials have expressed opposition to the visit through various channels. “We had warned that if Pelosi made the visit, there would be very serious consequences. China would respond strongly and forcefully. Unfortunately, the United States has chosen not to listen.”
Separation of powers in the game Pelosi had made it clear to White House officials that she was willing to reconsider her trip under two conditions: if the president directly asked the 82-year-old congresswoman not to go, or if Taiwan’s president withdrew her invitation. She would consider acceding to a request from Biden, she told officials, but Pelosi also made it clear she would make public that she was canceling her trip to Taiwan at the president’s behest. That put Biden — who served 36 years in the Senate and is a firm believer in the separation of powers — in a difficult position. If it became public that she did not want Pelosi to visit, it would risk making Biden and the United States look weak vis-a-vis China, experts said. In the end, Biden never told Pelosi about her trip despite Xi’s request to prevent it. In an absurd comment, Biden told reporters shortly before Pelosi’s expected visit that military officials thought the trip was not a good idea. Opinion | Nancy Pelosi: Why I’m Leading a Congressional Delegation to Taiwan White House officials declined to elaborate on the details of the Biden-Xi conversation, but pointed to comments made by National Security Council spokesman John Kirby shortly before Pelosi traveled to Taiwan. “The president, in his conversation with President Xi, made it clear that Congress is an independent branch of government and that Speaker Pelosi makes her own decisions, as do other members of Congress, about their foreign travel,” he said. Kirby. The last speaker of the House to visit Taiwan was Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in 1997, though arguably under different circumstances. China was not the global superpower it is today, and Gingrich was not the same political party as then-President Bill Clinton. Several members have visited Taiwan in recent years, and Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) led a congressional delegation to Taiwan this week. On August 7, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers denounced China’s military escalation in response to a recent visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). (Video: The Washington Post) Even so, Chinese officials made it clear that they saw Pelosi’s trip as a challenge from the US government. “He went there with the connivance and arrangement of the US government,” Chin said during his briefing. “This has seriously violated the one-China principle, seriously violated China’s sovereignty, greatly interfered with the internal…
