“It seems this female version (Nancy Pelosi) of Rip Van Winkle lawmaker refuses to wake up to the reality that China has emerged not only as a political and military power to reckon with but an economic power most countries must deal with for their own economic survival.”
Both the United States and Taiwan are acting like desperate children seeking the attention of the world as if to tell the international community that they are still a force to reckon with.
The US and China are shamelessly wooing friends that should any of the latter falter to either of the former’s condition, they would readily punish them to isolation or slap them with economic sanction for failure to toe the line.
The US has denigrated its approach to diplomacy to such abominable level.
China has shown to the world that diplomacy has maintained its high level of diplomacy by not allowing emotion to prevail over sanity and irrationality as waged by the US.
The US has lost its composure as shown by its irrational approach of constantly and consistently using sanctions on countries that violate its self-imposed red lines.
To people of sober minds but guided by their sense of practicality, the question is: What if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made her visit to Taiwan an official one?
Yes, she was welcomed by Tsai Ing-wen, but did the US gain anything from that political stunt?
It would have been totally different if Pelosi required Taiwan to break diplomatic relations with China or urged the Taiwanese government to declare independence from China or allowed the government of Taiwan to purchase offensive weapons, including nuclear weapons, from the US which could clearly be interpreted as intended to make war with China rather than merely provoke China into war.
But in this case, the visit of Pelosi to Taiwan was merely intended to vex China on how far it could go along in its childish game of provoking China.
In the vernacular, anybody who enters into this game, “‘ika nga, ang pikon ay laging talo.” That is exactly what those provocateurs wanted to happen.
In deeper analysis of what Pelosi did, one rightly stated her provocative action: that if China violently reacted like going to war with the US, China would find itself in difficult situation.
Even if the action taken by Pelosi was merely to provoke China, is it worth the cause to allow it to plunge into war for which US purposely sought to happen?
Most important, heads of states or heads of government who could read the mind of Pelosi snubbed her visit because they value more their trade with China than in giving luster to the trouble-making adventure of one US legislator.
Even South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol did not welcome Pelosi at the airport, probably saying that even her own president did not endorse her sneaky visit to Taiwan.
Probably, President Suk-Yeol has more to lose for South Korea’s economy than in attending to political gimmickry by an old wag in US politics. In fact, it was embarrassing for the Singaporean President to welcome Pelosi at the airport.
Now that the visit is over, the focus of public attention will now be on the action taken by China and not on the provocative visit of Pelosi.
Had China reacted violently, the US would be placed in a completely defensive position until such time the public would forget the issue, and instead twist it to aggression committed by China to a defenseless renegade island.
In fact, Nancy Pelosi is now talking much of her self-style crusade as a fight for democracy. But since when has the issue of freedom and democracy been the center of the struggle between China and Taiwan?
What China should do is to monopolize its clear advantage, which is its economic edge over Taiwan.
On this particular issue, nobody can challenge China, not even the members of the European Union.
Fighting them on this uncontestable issue is for China to retrace the root cause of the envy that country has lately been getting from the West.
All of a sudden, the West, which has been the promoter of imperialism, introduced slavery and colonialism to human civilization as their enemy and threat to their so-called global order.
Since China has emerged as a successful world economic power, the West, led principally by the US, has been targeting China as a threat to their global dominance and world order, and the US has taken Taiwan as their guinea pig to fight for the dying cause of US imperialism.
The launching by China of its Belt and Road Initiative, the subsequent creation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in June 2001, and the formation of the BRICS as a political organization are some proofs on how China has become an economic giant to reckon with.
Pelosi is acting as the spoil breaker for the US against China.
The US as an empire has become so desperate that it raises issue to every country that breaks diplomatic relations with Taiwan, such as the tiny Solomon Islands.
Practically, all countries in the Pacific Ocean have established ties with China except those areas that remain under the control of the US like Guam and the Marianas.
China even managed to penetrate most areas in Latin America where it considers as its last bastion of that infamous Monroe doctrine.
Most pitiful is that most members of the United Nations have abandoned the US by joining the Chinese and Russian-sponsored political and financial institutions.
The whole game of wanting to capture friends through diplomacy or blackmail has become paramount to US modus operandi just to keep afloat that Taiwan is still very much around to make some nasty adventurism for the US.
This explains why Nancy Pelosi acted like that of American cartoon call “wonder woman”—thinking she can still turn the tide against China by making that sneak trip to Taiwan in blatant disregard of the One-China Policy promulgated in the Shanghai communiqué for the sole purpose of provoking China into war with the US over Taiwan.
It seems this female version of Rip Van Winkle lawmaker refuses to wake up to the reality that China has emerged not only as a political and military power to reckon with but an economic power most countries must deal with for their own economic survival.
(rpkapunan@gmail.com).
