(PatriotWise.com)-The Chinese state-run newspaper “Global Times” mocked U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday over his decision to send a delegation of defense officials to Taiwan. The newspaper accused Biden of making the decision to send the delegation to upstage Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State during the Trump administration, who arrived for his own visit to the region on Wednesday.
Pompeo arrived in Taiwan for a four-day visit, during which he met with Taiwanese officials and even President Tsai Ing-wen. During his time in the. Trump administration, Pompeo built strong relationships with officials in Taiwan – and the Trump administration was arguably the most pro-Taiwan administration in many, many years.
When he arrived at Taoyuan International Airport, Pompeo told the press how he had been “looking forward” to the visit for a “very long time.”
“I’m so much looking forward to my trip, to meeting with business people, people from government, people all across your great nation,” he said.
Minister Wu welcomed the high-level bipartisan delegation of former #US security officials led by Adm Mike Mullen & comprising @micheleflournoy @OSullivanMeghan Michael Green & Evan Medeiros. We thank the Biden administration for its timely show of rock-solid support for #Taiwan. pic.twitter.com/R5sm9lvN2x
— 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼 (@MOFA_Taiwan) March 1, 2022
But soon after it was revealed that Pompeo was on his way, the Biden administration quickly announced its own delegation on Monday. Breitbart reports that the White House was very much aware of the visit, but didn’t comment on it at all.
Upon learning of the trip, the Global Times cited two anonymous “Chinese experts” who said that the Biden administration was trying to “offset the impact of the former secretary of state, who has ambitions for the 2024 presidential election.”
The Global Times added that many people in Taiwan, “who have witnessed endless U.S. arms sales and the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) authority’s decision to lift import bans of ractopamine-enhanced pork from the U.S., suspect that the U.S. is trying to raise the price of its protection fee for Taiwan during this trip.”
The Global Times also noted that “some analysts said Biden’s sudden dispatch of the delegation may have been an attempt to ‘draw red lines’ for the upcoming meeting between Tsai and Pompeo to avoid angering China at a time of instability, while at the same time offsetting the impact of Pompeo’s trip.”
For once, the Global Times might actually be right about something.
The Biden administration definitely doesn’t want former Republican White House officials maintaining a better relationship with Taiwan than they have…but then again, the Biden administration doesn’t defend Taiwan to quite the same extent Pompeo and Trump did.
So even if the Global Times is right, Biden has a job on his hands to make Pompeo unwelcome in Taiwan…
