Regarding Taiwan, Krishnamoorthi has an inflated view of congressional influence

Illinois 8th District Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congresspersons, has a strange way of practicing foreign policy.

He’s defending his recent visit to Taiwan with Pelosi as sending a strong signal to China not to expand its recent threats to Taiwan, including nearby military exercises and economic sanctions.

The strong signal that Krishnamoorthi claims will intimidate China to ignore Taiwan had the opposite effect: greatly expanding Chinese military maneuvers and economic sanctions against Taiwan. It further degraded US China diplomatic relations needed to resolve many issues, the most critical being how to combat climate destruction. Keeping Taiwan from being reunited with the Mainland won’t have much value if the world burns up.

These totally unneeded visits, the newest part of US ‘pivot to Asia’ begun by President Obama in 2011, only further gut US policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ which worked well for 4 decades after Nixon’s rapprochement with China in 1972 and US establishment of a One China Policy.

Krishnamoorthi ended his bizarre defense of his Taiwan visit with this incredulous declaration: “our congressional delegation’s visit should serve as an unequivocal statement that the United States will stand firm against the ambitions of military autocracies, and behind Taiwan, our partner in democracy.”

Provocative US actions threaten to ignite war 8,000 miles from the US that can only be won with nuclear weapons. Please, someone, have Congressman Krishnamoorthi and his congressional colleagues take remedial courses in sensible political science. The fate of the world is at risk with their foolish political grandstanding.