In what would appear to be a rapid de-escalation of the situation with China, the official itinerary for Nancy Pelosi’s Asia trip with a small Congressional delegation has been released (via Pelosi’s Twitter account):
This should allow cooler heads to prevail but the full statement was carefully worded to leave a little ambiguity if she suddenly just arrived in Taipei.
The potential for a visit to Taiwan was highlighted in this portion of an article from the South China Morning Post:
But the possibility for a stopover in Taiwan has not been ruled out completely.
“The statement is very carefully written. It only says that Pelosi is going for a trip to the Indo-Pacific region, including four nations while making no mention of Taiwan. So, in the case of Pelosi making a surprise visit to Taiwan, the press release still holds as she has never formally acknowledged or denied that Taiwan is a stop in her trip,” said Wu Junfei, a researcher at the Hong Kong-China Economic and Cultural Development Association think tank.
At this point in time it is all semantics, but will require watching what her actions and statements indicate as her delegation departs from Malaysia and Singapore.
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