Briefly addressing rumors about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, US President Joe Biden suggested on Wednesday that the military was opposed to it. His comments follow two days of stringent warnings from Beijing that the visit could irreparably damage Sino-American relations.
“I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now. But I don’t know what the status of it is,” Biden told reporters when asked about Pelosi’s possible Taiwan trip. He spoke with the press on Air Force One, returning to Washington from Massachusetts, where he announced executive actions on climate change.
Multiple media outlets reported on Tuesday that Pelosi was planning to take a congressional delegation to Taipei in August, after canceling the April trip on account of catching Covid-19. The 82-year-old Democrat has not officially confirmed or denied the trip. Neither has the government in Taipei.
If Pelosi goes through with the trip, she would be the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan since the Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich did so in 1997.