Become a Clash Insider!
Don’t let Big Tech pre-chew your news. Sign up for our free email newsletter, and we’ll keep you in the loop.
Pelosi’s planned trip to Taiwan is the most mishandled Foreign Policy situation by this Administration since … scratch that, just add it to the list of others. It was bad.
Pelosi and Biden couldn’t even get on the same page over the trip, and their public statements about it contradicted each other. That made journalists ask for clarification, and the clarification only muddied he water further.
Unresolved conflicts of interest involving the Biden family’s foreign business dealings (especially China) still hang over Joe’s head. What’s more, the current administration having supercharged Obama’s lead-from-behind ethos in favor of Trump’s much more brash style.
Between the divided front on the Taiwan trip and the trademark weakness and uncertainty of Joe’s leadership and cabinet — China and now Russia — have been using his issue to squeeze them.
China’s social media accounts have justified shooting down Pelosi’s plane, and Xi has made open threats to America in his recent phone call with Biden.
Xi threatened Biden over Taiwan, warning according to the Chinese readout that assisting Taiwan in pursuing independence “is playing with fire, and if you play with fire, you will get burned.”
“China will have to take resolute measures if the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces provoke, compel or even cross the red line,” Xi added. — DailyWire
A will-she-won’t-she about Pelosi’s planned visit ensued in which the implications of the weakness of bowing to Chinese pressure in the eyes of the world were weighed against the risks of provoking the Chinese tyrant and the decision seems to have been made she will be going after all.
Now Russia has joined its rhetoric to Xi’s.
Russia — a country that is even now reducing its peaceful neighbor’s infrastructure, apartment buildings and shopping centers to rubble — presumes to take the moral high road in denouncing Pelosi’s visit as ‘a provocation’.
“What is connected with this tour and a possible visit to Taiwan is a pure provocation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He said the potential visit was leading to an “increase in tension” in the region and accused Washington of choosing “the path of confrontation”.
“We want to emphasise once again that we are absolutely in solidarity with China, its attitude towards the problem is understandable and absolutely justified.”
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also accused the United States of being provocative over the potential visit.
“Washington is bringing destabilisation to the world. Not a single resolved conflict in recent
decades, but many provoked ones,” she said on social media. — InsiderPaper
Normally, American leaders would handle such a sensitive visit the way Senator Cruz did in 2019. They would just show up.
During the National Day celebration, Sen. Cruz praised the men and women of Taiwan who continue to stand up against the oppression of the Chinese Communist Party:
“I’m here in Taiwan at Liberty Square, celebrating the men and women who have stood and continue to stand up against Chinese Communist oppression and for freedom. America is proud to be allies with the people of Taiwan. Today is the 10-10 National Day ceremony, and I’m here to celebrate America’s strong friendship and alliance with the people of Taiwan.” —TedCruzSenate
But by announcing it long in advance, Pelosi gave Xi and his stooges plenty of lead-time to whip up maximum political outrage over this issue, advancing their own political agendas.
Biden has previously had several faux pas in his handling of Taiwan, where he has made official statements that don’t line up with our official diplomatic talking points (where words matter and are carefully parsed by our rivals) and public statements had to be walked back.
More recently the same China that used the distraction caused by the pandemic to wipe away any semblance of democratic self-rule in Hong Kong has made formal declarations about their attempt at ‘reunification’ of China and the swallowing up of a very vibrant semi-independent Chinese island that had successfully repelled the advance of Mao’s Communist revolution in the first place.
In response to this visit, China has militarized the point on China’s mainland nearest to Taiwan, including rolling out tanks onto the beaches.
Sure would be nice to have someone in the White House now who had no alarming financial connections in his immediate family to the Chinese Communist Party clouding his judgment, don’t you think?
Psalms of War: Prayers That Literally Kick Ass is a collection, from the book of Psalms, regarding how David rolled in prayer. I bet you haven’t heard these read, prayed, or sung in church against our formidable enemies — and therein lies the Church’s problem. We’re not using the spiritual weapons God gave us to waylay the powers of darkness. It might be time to dust them off and offer ‘em up if you’re truly concerned about the state of Christ’s Church and of our nation.
Also included in this book, Psalms of War, are reproductions of the author’s original art from his Biblical Badass Series of oil paintings.
This is a great gift for the prayer warriors. Real. Raw. Relevant.
