This is a very dangerous situation. The relationship has lost all predictability. Where previously the US-China relationship was based on a well-established and deep mutual understanding and respect for each other’s position, now there is very little, at times seemingly none. The guardrails that prevented the relationship suddenly swerving off course are no longer in place, as we have seen so dramatically over the last week or so. What makes the situation even more dangerous, frightening in fact, is the growing power vacuum in the US. Biden, up until the last minute, did not appear to know whether fellow-Democrat Pelosi would go to Taiwan. As we have seen, on two different occasions his aides intervened to reassure the media that had to reinterpret his suggestion that the US would come to Taiwan’s defense in the event of Chinese military action.
It is impossible to predict who might be the US president in 2024. It is not difficult, for example, to imagine the return of Trump or someone even worse. Meanwhile, driving the process of polarization and fragmentation in the US is American decline. It is this, above all, which is responsible for the growing breakdown of the global order. We have entered the age of disorder and instability, both in the US itself and, of course, in the wider world. It represents a mortal threat to global peace. In just a few short years, the language of war, conquest and conflict has replaced the language of cooperation and peace. The idea of war is becoming progressively normalized. That means there is a rising likelihood of it actually happening.
It is no accident that the flashpoint is Taiwan. One of Trump’s first actions as president was to take a call from Tsai Ing-wen, the first time since 1979 that a US president had spoken with a Taiwanese regional leader. He even began to question the One-China policy, although he was dissuaded from pursuing this by wiser heads. One of the great achievements of the Nixon-Mao rapprochement was a series of understandings that for the next 40 years would inform and underpin the US-China relationship on the Taiwan question. Once the US-China relationship began to unravel after 2016, it was inevitable that the Taiwan question would once again become a hot-button issue.
Pelosi to visit North-South Korean border
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to visit an inter-Korean border area that is jointly controlled by American-led U.N. Command and North Korea later on Thursday, Associated Press reported, citing a South Korean official.
If that visit occurs, Pelosi would be the highest-level American to go to the Joint Security Area since then-President Donald Trump went there in 2019 for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the report added.
apnews.com/article/taiwan-asia-seoul-south-korea-nancy-pelosi-2aad0559845bf7b5f8c22ca74378db70
Pelosi’s still parked in South Korea while the Chinese Bombs fly over Taiwan
globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae503d
The war party is bipartisan in the United States and it is just itching to seize the opportunity to get a new venture going, and they are oblivious to the fact that they might in the process be about to destroy the world as we know it. t.co/GxUMa4RylN
— Philip Giraldi (@philipgiraldi) July 27, 2022
❗️#China firing rockets over #Taiwan into sea – report
Unconfirmed social media video and reports suggest the PLA live-fire drills are sending missiles through Taiwan's airspace and into the sea beyond the island. pic.twitter.com/mpwrRvR9kI
— MOCez🇷🇺🇱🇾🇮🇶🇾🇪🇨🇳🇵🇰🇵🇸🇸🇾🇮🇳🇮🇷🇰🇵 (@Mousacisse1) August 4, 2022