House Armed Services Chair Smith: We Can’t Let China Dictate Whether Pelosi Goes to Taiwan

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “At This Hour,” House Armed Services Committee Chair Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) stated that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) should go ahead with her planned trip to Taiwan — a trip that President Joe Biden has criticized — because China shouldn’t be allowed to dictate where one of America’s most powerful officials goes and China shouldn’t be allowed to define everything as a provocation and a threat any more than Russia should be allowed to do so.

Smith stated, “I don’t think we should let China dictate something like this. Nancy Pelosi’s the Speaker of the House. She’s one of the most powerful people in the country. If she wants to go visit Taiwan, she ought to be able to do that. And China — Russia does the same thing. Russia says, everything is provocative and threatening. It is not provocative or threatening for Nancy Pelosi to go to Taiwan. She’s meeting with them and she’s talking to them. China does not have the right to dictate how the U.S. or Taiwan should conduct itself in these matters. Nancy Pelosi isn’t going there to call for Taiwanese independence or to attack China. She’s going there to express support for the Taiwan government and the Taiwan people. And I just don’t think we can let China dictate to us where the Speaker of the House travels to.”

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