Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan trip highlights need to reset global thinking

The US House speaker’s visit to Taiwan left many wondering what had been gained, with China’s neighbours resigned to Beijing indulging in a protracted sulk

Instead of viewing US-China conflict as a clash of civilisations, it might be more useful to be attuned to philosophers of harmony and compassion

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A woman looks at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army aircraft flying over Pingtan island, one of mainland China’s closest points to Taiwan, on August 5. Photo: Reuters

Tom Plate

Tom Plate is a university professor and a veteran columnist focused on Asia and America.

Published: 3:30am, 9 Aug 2022Updated: 8:03am, 10 Aug 2022

Can our world develop a collective mindset that allows it to stay calm even under extreme pressure? Anyone who tracked with growing alarm US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip through East Asia last week might well have asked themselves: but at what cost? The entourage of the US’ most accomplished domestic politician left behind few patches of peace and security and instead scattered seeds of disarray and doubt.

Even the good people of Taiwan, the putative beneficiaries of Pelosi’s march to Taipei, with their ears ringing from missiles overhead, had to wonder what, if anything, had been gained.

In South Korea, the new government pointedly ducked Pelosi’s arrival as best it could: the country’s president was “on vacation” and its foreign minister was “travelling”, excuses which left many Koreans relieved. Why annoy China? Why hand North Korea yet another reason to go on a missile bender? There are enough problems in East Asia.