was a little surprised to realize i was the highest ranking american official ever to visit taiwan. we did so as part of a trip the chinese communist had invited us to shanghai and beijing i went with a bipartisan delegation, one of the points i would make to nancy pelosi is very important, make a bipartisan delegation. we had 11 members, including john dingle, a senior democrat at that time. and we said to them, just before the trip started, by the way, we re going to go to taiwan. they were furious. they did everything they re doing right now. they threatened, they bullied, they bluffed. and gardener peck ham our national security advisor i remember being near him he was on a phone call with the chai knees ambassador and finally said, look, the chinese communists are not the travel guide for the american speaker of the house. if you don t want him to go to
prestige. it s humiliating. if the speaker of the house now allows some second rate chinese foreign diplomat to issue a statement and change the direction, change the actions that the united states will take because we are fearful of them, we are in for a long struggle and it will not end well with that kind of failed leadership. it tells every one of our allies in the region, the japanese, south koreans, don t hang with center city they re fearful. laura: the problem isn t pelosi s decision to show support to the people of taiwan that s admirable. the problem is that from day one the biden administration has established a reputation for weakness and incompetence, not just in domestic affairs but foreign affairs as well. and this encourages china to bully and embarrass the biden administration at every opportunity. so right now, chinese officials are banking on a continuation of the status quo. the slow, but sure, capitulation
very important? i think you have to recognize, this is very simple. if speaker pelosi backs down, what the chinese communists will learn is one more example of american weakness at a time when the biden administration was defeated in afghanistan, has failed totally in ukraine, and continues to signal its utter weakness. this would be, i think, increasing the danger of a communist invasion of taiwan. on the other hand, if speaker pelosi decides, as i hope she will, to take a bipartisan delegation, so it s very clear to the chinese communists, whether you re a democrat or a republican, we are for the freedom of taiwan. laura: right. from not being invited. i think that s important historically. laura: it would be amazing for her legacy. i m not trying to give her legacy advice, that s a separate
check to fail to comply with market p china has charged over changed over 30 years in some respects, it s appalling that its human rights record is worse snooped fantastic i can t believe i m saying that about nancy pelosi. but now third in line to the presidency she has a golden opportunity to move beyond rhetoric and actually strike a blow for liberty. now, since we learned about her intention one week ago to travel to taiwan, powerful forces here and in china have been trying to wave her off with not so subtle threats. the chinese side has repeatedly made clear to the u.s. side our serious concern over speaker pelosi s potential visit to taiwan and our firm opposition to the visit. we are prepared for any event walt if the u.s. side insists on making a visit, the chinese side will take firm and strong measures to safe guard our
expected to speak with xi by telephone on thursday. this is an absolute embarrassment. this would never have happened under president trump. i ll tell you what the agenda s going to be. xi gets what he wants, he promising nothing and biden s comes team declares progress has been made frfrmths everything from tensions of taiwan to war in ukraine as well as how we better manage competition between our two nations, certainly in the economic sphere, there s a host of issues, and this is a call that has been scheduled for a long time. laura: oh, for a long time. well, joe biden thought his long friendship with xi was going to mean xi would be nicer to us. laura: of course, the man s never been right about a single