Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan was a success…
…a success in that It took the impending defeat of Ukraine out of the news cycle and replaced Russia with China as US’s most urgent concern. Ukraine is a lost cause … (because we misjudged Russia’s strength ) … so let’s switch to China. But that small success comes at a huge cost.
Why did the US misjudge Russia’s strength and intentions in the first place? Was our intelligence at fault? Or did the policy makers in the State Department ignore the intelligence that was provided? If the intelligence was inadequate the responsibility lies on the administration for tolerating the situation. And if the Intelligence was adequate, but ignored, the responsibility lies, again, with the administration.
Most of the Biden administration’s many substantive, strategic, and tactical mistakes have occurred because throughout the administration there was, and there still is, a deep ignorance of the situation in contemporary Russia, especially Russian politics and the country’s economic strengths. Deflecting attention momentarily from Ukraine is not at all helpful—it only delays the recognition of reality.
Though the visit to Taiwan was politically successful in momentarily deflecting the public’s attention from the Ukraine disaster, it comes at a great cost to US/China relations and to confidence of other nations in any agreement made with the US. China now realizes that normal relations between the two countries are not possible. The nation that ignores previous agreements made which honored China’s “One China” policy cannot be trusted to keep its word on any agreement.
While attention was temporarily diverted from Ukraine it comes at the expense of damaged diplomatic ties with China and with it the distrust of other nations in any agreement made with the US. Buttering up Taiwan does nothing to make the world a safer place and it only antagonizes a world power and offers another example of the US being untrustworthy. Not a formula for establishing peace in the world.
It’s only a matter of time ‘till European nations turn against the US for the damage done to their economies by supporting the US led proxy war against Russia. Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan was a disaster for diplomacy.