Calling Xi's bluff.

Forums:
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Is Nancy Pelosi about to start WW3?

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Question • Score: 7 • Views: 604 • Replies: 22

[+4] - edgarblythe - 08/02/2022When John Kennedy and Richard Nixon held Presidential debates prior to the 1960 election their energy went to arguing which candidate could best defend Taiwan. About 63 years ago.
[+3] - engineer - 08/02/2022No. On the range of in-your-face political maneuvers, this one is pretty blatant, but China is likely going to respond by doing some live fire exercises off the Taiwan coast and having naval...

@malc jones,

If any party starts WWIII, it will be China. Or North Korea, or maybe Iran.

1 Reply

@malc jones,

Pelosi doesn't have the power to declare war nor the means to pursue one. Does Xi really want to start WWIII because a US politician visited Taipei? Hardly seems worth it.

0 Replies

@malc jones,

No. On the range of in-your-face political maneuvers, this one is pretty blatant, but China is likely going to respond by doing some live fire exercises off the Taiwan coast and having naval confrontations in the South China Sea.

The real question to me is why is Biden doing this at this moment. The idea that Pelosi would do something like this without White House approval is pretty far-fetched to both me and the Chinese. It just seems like a really weird time to pick a fight with China unless the State Department has decided that the US needs to send a message to other countries in the region that the US is seriously engaging.

2 Replies

@engineer,

Biden's been making comments for weeks about defending Taiwan so I'm not surprised by this visit. China appears to be in a pretty bad state right now, internally, and talk is Xi can't afford a major event just a few months prior to his pretty-much guaranteed third term. There's a lot of unrest in his country and his web police are kept busy purging angry posts pretty much around the clock.

0 Replies

When John Kennedy and Richard Nixon held Presidential debates prior to the 1960 election their energy went to arguing which candidate could best defend Taiwan. About 63 years ago.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

Heh, it seems we took a few steps back from that kind of rhetoric for the past few decades only to come back around to it.

0 Replies

@malc jones,

malc jones wrote:

Is Nancy Pelosi about to start WW3?

No.

1 Reply

@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

malc jones wrote:

Is Nancy Pelosi about to start WW3?

No.

Did you ask her? She might convert a drinking straw to a peashooter and blast at the Chinese with it.

0 Replies

I think it's interesting that China has a melt-down when an 82 year old woman visits Taiwan. I'm not diminishing Pelosi, my argument is not with her. But really folks, China has been stealing information from us for years, they steal medical research, industrial secrets, they pirate massive amounts of designer goods............and now they **** in their bloomers because Nancy arrives????

Maybe it's a great plan to embarrass the Chinese sense of superiority by sending our most senior elected officials to traipse around Taiwan. Now the ships have been launched, military exercises have started (oh eek), maybe they will send their crappy missiles to Russia.................oh my God what's going to happen?? No this will not start the 3rd World War, but it does undercut the image of the superior masculinity of the Chinese Empire and Emperor.

1 Reply

@glitterbag,

I hope more heads of state and powerful political figures follow her example. And I'd like to see a referendum by the Taiwanese on whether they want to be united with the mainland. The "breakaway province" mythology is not well-rooted in history.

1 Reply

@malc jones,

The sky is not falling.

0 Replies

@engineer,

engineer wrote:

No. On the range of in-your-face political maneuvers, this one is pretty blatant, but China is likely going to respond by doing some live fire exercises off the Taiwan coast and having naval confrontations in the South China Sea.

The real question to me is why is Biden doing this at this moment. The idea that Pelosi would do something like this without White House approval is pretty far-fetched to both me and the Chinese. It just seems like a really weird time to pick a fight with China unless the State Department has decided that the US needs to send a message to other countries in the region that the US is seriously engaging.

It's China that's picked a fight by constantly trying to terrorize Taiwan. Showing solidarity with a victim of bullying is not "picking a fight."

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

Biden, unlike say the last five Presidents, has been pretty vocal about his support for Taiwan. With everything that is going on, it's not the thing people will talk about, but it's a pretty consistent theme. I think you can see Biden's cold warrior legacy in multiple places. Between coordinating allies ahead of Russia's invasion of Ukraine to his comments on Taiwan to his killing of al-Zawahiri last week and Maher al-Agal (high-ranking official of the Islamic State) last month to his increasing US Navy presence in the South China Sea, Biden clearly is not very intimidated by nebulous foreign threats and is willing to flex US soft and hard power.

1 Reply

@roger,

roger wrote:

If any party starts WWIII, it will...... maybe Iran.

Absolute nonsense.

Iranian scientists have been assassinated by the IDF.

Biden has threatened military action against Iran.

Iran kept to the terms of the nuclear agreement, America ripped up the international agreement, not Iran.

If there is a war in the ME it will be started by America or one of its proxies, Israel, Saudi Arabia or another Gulf State.

2 Replies

@izzythepush,

truth

izzythepush wrote:

roger wrote:

If any party starts WWIII, it will...... maybe Iran.

Absolute nonsense.

Iranian scientists have been assassinated by the IDF.

Biden has threatened military action against Iran.

Iran kept to the terms of the nuclear agreement, America ripped up the international agreement, not Iran.

If there is a war in the ME it will be started by America or one of its proxies, Israel, Saudi Arabia or another Gulf State.

0 Replies

@izzythepush,

I think the problem is the Middle East right now is Saudi Arabia. They're waging a proxy war in Yemen, in a cold war with Qatar and have been stirring sectarian strife with Iran for years. With their military aspirations and oil money, SA is looking to become a regional power on the order of Israel and has been slipping towards totalitarianism. I also think both Israel and Saudi Arabia are not happy with Biden who has not been rubber stamping their actions like the last several administrations. SA in particular looks like it will move into China's sphere of influence where concerns about human rights and war crimes will be minimal.

2 Replies

@engineer,

Biden fist bumped the crown prince and spoke of military action against Iran while visiting Israel.

He could have done significantly more to calm tensions in the region.

1 Reply

@engineer,

The US attitude concerning the PRC and Taiwan has changed over the years as China has become an economic and strategic rival, a regional hegemon, an ally of Russia, an autocratic surveillance state, and is guilty of gross violations of the human rights of Chinese dissidents, the people of Hong Kong, and of the Uyghur minority. I think the shift in Biden's tone reflects these political changes in China. The former guy concentrated on trade issues, which sort of masked these other concerns.

0 Replies

@izzythepush,

I want to make it clear that the only thing I am disagreeing with is Roger's portrayal of Iran.

I am not taking the side of the OP at all.

I agree with Engineer and Hightor about Russia and China.

0 Replies

Forums
» Calling Xi's bluff.

Read Question
Reply to All

Calling Xi's bluff.

Quick Links

My Account

able2know