Joe Biden has cautioned against the reported trip to Taiwan next month by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, saying the US military had assessed \u201cit is not a good idea right now\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Pelosi would lead a delegation to Taiwan in August to show support for the democratically ruled island, which Beijing claims is a breakaway province. The trip was initially scheduled for April but was postponed due to Pelosi testing positive for Covid at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I think that the military thinks it\u2019s not a good idea right now,\u201d said Biden on Wednesday of the reported trip, which Beijing said would cause further damage to the bilateral relationship. \u201cBut I don\u2019t know what the status of it is,\u201d Biden added.<\/p>\n
Biden\u2019s comments came as the US president is scheduled to speak to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, by the end of the month. The call will be the two leaders\u2019 first in four months. Analysts said Biden and Xi would discuss issues ranging from Taiwan to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s director, Bill Burns, said China was \u201cunsettled\u201d when looking at Russia\u2019s five-month-old war in Ukraine, which he characterised as a \u201cstrategic failure\u201d for Vladimir Putin as he had hoped to topple the Kyiv government within a week.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Burns played down speculation Xi could move on Taiwan after a key Communist party meeting later this year, but added: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t underestimate President Xi\u2019s determination to assert China\u2019s control\u201d over self-ruling Taiwan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joe Biden has cautioned against the reported trip to Taiwan next month by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, saying the US military had assessed \u201cit is not a good idea right now\u201d. The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Pelosi would lead a delegation to Taiwan in August to show support for the democratically […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-272592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n