out front tonight, china talks were. a top official of the chinese embassy in washington saying today, quote, taiwan as one of the very few issues that might take china and the united states to conflict, or even a war. this, coming soon after the white house summit to china s ambassador to condemn china s military activities near taiwan. activities, of course, that have gone into overdrive since has bicker nancy pelosi s visit to the island this week. today, 60 to chinese aircraft, 13 chinese warships, conducted activities around the taiwan straight. taiwan says 49 of those jets entered its air defense identification zone. chinese china releasing this video showcasing military readiness. showing lines of uniformed troops at the ready. look, this is the latest military propaganda video released by china yesterday, they put up this one, a rocket launch toward taiwan strait. they ve been conducting live fire exercises and they show multiple conventional missile launches. right b
u.s. president, joe biden, is on his way to south korea on his first asia trip as president. he will also be visiting japan and meet with leaders of india and australia as well. the asia trip comes later in biden s presidency than he may have liked. he wants to affirm the importance of our indo-pacific alliances. kevin, we ll begin with you. joe biden has been focusing much on the war in ukraine. this an attempt that they can walk and talk and chew gum at the same time. it s meant to reaffirm the u.s. commitment to the key alliance in east asia with south korea and japan and demonstrate that president biden still has this focus on asia despite all of the time and attention he s been spending on the war in ukraine. you saw that play out in the near term when the president in the morning he met with the leaders in finland and sweden. they are trying to join nato and he pivoted and turned to asia. te took flight and still on it now on his way to asia an it s really sort of dem
call, military exhibition and because i don t believe they really want war with the united states anymore than we do with them. it is the inadvertent situation, the inadvertent incident that goes incendiary very quickly, out of control, which neither side wants, that is, i think, of concern to, certainly, the united states, to taiwan, undoubtedly, and, for that matter, allies in the region. director, obviously white house officials have privately tried to warn pelosi not to go, but they stopped short of telling her she couldn t, right? now we have this ratcheting up tensions. when you look at this, do you think the united states was prepared? i was ready, at all, for the ramifications of pelosi s trip, and what comes next? actually, i don t,
this focus on asia despite all of the time and attention he s been spending on the war in ukraine. you saw that play out in the near term when the president in the morning he met with the leaders in finland and sweden. they are trying to join nato and he pivoted and turned to asia. te took flight and still on it now on his way to asia an it s really sort of demonstrative of his broader foreign policy even as the other foreign crisis have popped up around the world. the president really does want to spend a lot of time focusing on this continent both because of the security concerns that exist here in north korea stepping up their prove ocation but also this attempt to counter china. china is sort of ratcheting up tensions in taiwan. all of these areas of concern for allies in this region and the president wants to show that the united states is committed to its alliances so you ll see
advisors and when you ask whether the administration as a whole has a strategy, i don t think so. here s what we should be doing. you know, we ve got to have a credible military threat. not talk about armadas towards north korea when it turns out they re headed in the opposite direction. we have to strengthen our relationship with our allies. i went on an oversilgght tripp asia and they think we have a commander in chief we can t trust. we have to an opening for diplomacy. everybody admits there s no military solution here. and instead of providing an opening for diplomacy, what the president is doing, by ratcheting up tensions, is actually closing that window down. he s doing the exact opposite of what we need to do to help resolve this crisis. congressman, by, i do want to ask about a new generation of leadership in the democratic party. a lot of people that i talk to that everyone talks to privately who raises your name when they think about 2020. you will say it s too early and