GOP Senators Back Pelosi’s Taiwan Trip

A group of Republican senators is voicing support for Speaker Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan.In a joint statement, Senator Sullivan of Alaska and 25 of his GOP colleagues said they backed the House speaker’s visit in defiance of Red China.“We support Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan,” the senators wrote. “For decades, members of the United States Congress, including previous Speakers of the House, have traveled to Taiwan. This travel is consistent with the United States’ One China policy to which we are committed. We are also committed now, more than ever, to all elements of the Taiwan Relations Act.”Mrs. Pelosi became the highest-ranking American official in 25 years to visit the self-ruled island that is claimed by Beijing.The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, one of the statement’s signees, defended Mrs. Pelosi’s trip on the floor shortly after she arrived.“I believe she has every right to go,” Mr. McConnell said, “and it’s been unseemly and counterproductive for President Biden and his aides to have publicly sought to deter her from doing so.”The Biden administration did not explicitly urge Mrs. Pelosi to call the trip off, and sought to assure Beijing that the visit did not signal any change in American policy on Taiwan.Communist China claims that Taiwan is part of its territory. It has threatened to annex it by force and views visits by foreign government officials as recognition of the island’s sovereignty.China had warned of “resolute and strong measures” if Ms. Pelosi went ahead with the trip, but has given no details. The Associated Press reports that speculation has centered on threatening military exercises and possible incursions by Chinese planes and ships into areas under Taiwanese control.“The United States is not going to be intimidated,” the White House National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, told CNN shortly after Mrs. Pelosi’s arrival at Taipei.The previous highest-ranking official to visit Taiwan was another House speaker, Newt Gingrich, in 1997.Other signees of Tuesday’s joint statement included Senators Thune, Inhofe, Risch, Blunt, Cornyn, Barrasso, Cramer, Sasse, Blackburn, Tillis Tuberville, Daines, Collins, Fischer, Young, Ernst, Portman, Moore Capito, Crapo, Burr, Boozman, Scott, Grassley, and Toomey.Mr. Blunt went so far as to say he was “going to use four words I’ve never used before: Speaker Pelosi was right.”

GOP Senators Back Pelosi’s Taiwan Trip

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