Pelosi’s Taiwan Diplomacy is a Warning and Prediction

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NEWS & OPINION

What could House Speaker Nancy Pellosi ‘s trip to Taiwan bring? Harry Kazianis , is a veteran observer of international affairs and has some thoughts.

” One thing is certain: The U.S. military has fought in two decades of wars in the Middle East and isn’t ready to wage a large-scale, high-intensity conflict over vast expanses across the Indo-Pacific. “In fact, Beijing spent the past several decades building its military machinery for a moment exactly like this,” said Mr. Kazianis in a statement that was shared with Inside the Beltway.

“China is equipped with thousands of hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles that are ready and waiting to strike Navy aircraft carriers in Asia and other bases,” he said.

” If tensions rose over Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in July, China would launch a huge ‘bolt out of the blue’ using its thousands missiles to cause so much destruction to U.S forces that Washington would not have any choice but to let Beijing dominate the area,” Mr. Kazianis stated.

” If Washington decides to continue fighting, the U.S. Navy will have to make its way in the area while under fire from Chinese missiles which can strike thousands of miles away.” he said.

Mr. Kazianis was the senior director for Korean Studies at the Center for the National Interest and also held editorial or policy positions at The Heritage Foundation and The Diplomat magazine, as well as at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Rogue States Project is a bipartisan think tank on national security.

THE PELOSI-PRESS

Political experts from both sides continue to think about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ”s motive to travel to Taiwan by herself.

There’s also some nervous murmuring coming from diplomat sources across multiple countries. And of course, the news media has been all over the story from the moment Mrs. Pelosi’s planned visit was first reported way back on July 19. Here’s a few headlines from the last 24 hours;

“Pelosi’s trip in Taiwan is high-risk and low-reward,” (The Boston Globe); “The damage from Pelosi’s unwise trip to Taiwan must be contained” (The Washington Post); Red fury: China furious at Nancy Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan,” (Associated Press); “Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan defies China threats and U.S. Military warnings” [Financial Times]; “Pelosi arrive in Taiwan and defy China” (Wall Street Journal] (China) (Politico); and to protect Taiwan (Politico); and China sends warships to attack Taiwan (Wall-to surround Taiwan (Politico);

YET ANOTHER PARTISAN DIVIDE

Concerns about monkeypox are growing in America. This is not surprising as there is a strong political dynamic.

“The share of Americans who are somewhat or very concerned about a monkeypox epidemic in the U.S. has risen to 45% from 34% since late May; the share who are very concerned is up to 13% from 7%. The share of Americans who are somewhat or very worried about experiencing monkeypox is 31%, up from 25% in late May; 11% are very worried, up from 7%,” advises an analysis from YouGov, which is now tracking the trend.

“Democrats have a higher likelihood than Republicans of following monkeypox news, being concerned about the epidemic and worried about their own health,” said the pollster.

The numbers are: Approximately two-thirds of Democrats — 62% – are worried about monkeypox. Among Republicans, 25% are concerned. Another 35% of Democrats say they are not concerned, compared to 74% of Republicans who also have no concern.

The survey of 1,500 U.S. adults was conducted July 23-26.

FOXIFIED

According to Nielsen Media Research,

Fox News was the third-most-watched television network after NBC and CBS.

Fox News has bested cable news rivals CNN and MSNBC for the 18th month in a row, drawing an average 2.1 million viewers during July, compared to 1.3 million who chose MSNBC and 731,000 who went with CNN.

Fox News also broadcast 82 the most popular 100 news channels during the month.

The standout show is “The Five,” with an average audience of 3.2million viewers. Then comes “Tucker Carlson tonight, which has a viewership of 3.1 million. The late night programs also won. “Gutfeld!” averaged nearly 2 million nightly viewers in July, outpacing both ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”

SO WHERE ARE YOU AGAIN?

“Are You a Faith and Flag Conservative Progressive Left? “Or somewhere in-between?” asked the Pew Research Centre in a public advisory.

“Take our quiz to find out which one of our nine political typology groups is your best match, compared with a nationally representative survey of more than 10,000 U.S. adults by Pew Research Center. Some of the questions may be difficult for you to answer. That’s OK. “In those situations, choose the closest answer to you, even though it may not be exactly right,” said the pollster.

Many people would like to find out what political animal they might be.

This outreach has been on the Pew Research website for six months — but remains No 2. in the pollster’s top-10 most read articles, second only to an analysis titled “Gun deaths in the U.S.: 10 key questions answered.”

Curious? Find the quiz at pewresearch.org/politics/quiz/political-typology

POLL D’HOME

13% of U.S. adults would describe themselves as “very conservative” when it comes to their political viewpoint.

19% would describe themselves as “conservative.”

30% say they are “moderate” on political views.

16% say they are “liberal.”

10% say they are “very liberal.”

13% are not sure about their political viewpoint.

SOURCE: A YouGov poll of 1,500 U.S. adults conducted July 23-26.

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