Darrell Castle talks about the island known to the West as Taiwan and offers a few thoughts on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent visit there.

Transcription / Notes:

WHAT DOES STANDING WITH TAIWAN REALLY MEAN?

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 5th day of August in the year of our Lord 2022 and on today’s report I will be talking about the Island known as Taiwan except to China where it is known as China. Specifically, I will offer a few thoughts on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan.

Why is Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan such a big deal? After all she is not the first member of congress to visit that nation. She is, however, a duly elected, official of the United States as well as second behind Vice President Kamala Harris, in line for the presidency of the United States. I suppose that makes her visit very important to the Chinese. It is akin to a state visit to what they consider to be part of their sovereign territory.

All that was well know to the speaker of the house of representatives before she planned her trip, but she did it anyway. The president said he thought it was not a good idea and so did the secretary of defense, but she went anyway. Why, what did the trip accomplish, and how did it properly represent her constituents in San Francisco? The U.S. claims that since the speaker represents the legislative branch, and the executive branch handles diplomacy and is empowered to determine U.S. foreign policy that her trip was therefore insignificant.

I’m pretty sure the Chinese don’t understand or accept such distinctions. They probably don’t accept the idea that the trip was not endorsed by the president and I’m certain that to them its all part of a pre-arranged plan. China’s outrage, either genuine or also concocted, was made very clear. Some in the Chinese military threatened to shoot down her plane, but fortunately cooler heads prevailed. It seems that the Chinese do not want to provoke a full-scale war with the United States, at least not yet.

The history of this conflict goes back to the end of World War ll when the forces of Mao chased Chiang Kai-Shek to what was then called Formosa. Chiang established a Chinese government in exile While Mao ran China and claimed the island of Taiwan as sovereign Chinese territory. War clouds have appeared over the island ever since and it constantly threatens the world with war today. The U.S. has always walked a line between recognition of Taiwan independence and admitting it is part of China.

The diplomacy was worked out between Nixon, Kissinger, and the Chinese when Nixon “opened” China with his visit in 1974. Basically, both sides agreed to coexist and ignore the elephant in the room. The U.S. would not recognize Taiwan independence and the Chinese would not attempt to take Taiwan by force. The position of the U.S. regarding an attempted invasion by China would remain deliberately unclear and obscure so that they would never know until it happened. Would the U.S. defend Taiwan militarily or not, no one knew for sure?

All that changed with a recent trip by President Biden to Japan. When asked by a reporter if the U.S. would defend Taiwan he said yes, that’s our commitment. That, of Course, has never been our commitment, but such gaffes or deliberate statements sometimes lead toward world war. The Chinese were probably amazed at the statement, and it undoubtedly accounted for some of the fiery rhetoric and threats about the trip.

The Chinese military strength continues to grow and with that growth comes increasingly aggressive threats and efforts to expand in the Pacific. So far, the disputes have involved fishing rights, coastal islands, and disputed territorial waters but it remains a very dangerous situation and that’s why this trip was ill conceived in my mind. Once she announced the trip she had to go despite the Chinese threats, but more importantly because of them.