Let's get more now on what you were talking about with your top story. The US how speaking, Nancy Pelosi to visit Asian countries, including here in Singapore and Japan, but her office has made no mention of a stopover in Taiwan. Joining us to discuss is Samson Ellis Taipei Bureau Chief. Uh. Sam, you know, we're just waiting to see whether or not Nancy Pelosi will defy these Chinese warnings with a stop in Taiwan. Tell us the latest here, as we don't have any kind of indication on her
itinery that that's actually going to happen. Well, that is precisely the big question we're all trying to answer here, Will she come to Taiwan or not? So she finally released the official itinerary of her trip yesterday that includes Singapore first of all, Malaysia Career, and Japan. But obviously the question is is Taiwan going to be added to the trip as an unofficial stop. Um. So, there was a lot of eyes on her trip to Asia over the weekend, and SPA nineteen was the key aircraft identifier.
Tens of thousands of people were watching on flight radar over the weekend to see if it veered towards Taiwan. It ended up not doing so. I mean, it did switch off its tracker for a while, leaving everybody watching rather disappointed. But when it did turn its transponder on again, it was landing in Singapore. UM, so obviously she didn't land in Taiwan on her way to Asia or arriving in Asia. But so they are. Now. The question is whether or not she's going to stop off in Taiwan
on the way out, maybe after she visits Japan on Thursday. Sam, I think it's fair to say that the US has been frustrated by Beijing's refusal to condemn the war in Ukraine.
And I'm wondering whether or not you think, as Pelosi takes the delegation to places like Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan, whether the conversation is going to focus on Taiwan, and whether or not she is just making sure that those US um friends, let's call them friends at this point, are willing to stand behind any message that needs to be sent to Beijing from the US perspective as it applies to Taiwan. Well, Asia is very much divided on
this issue. You typically have nations in Southeast Asia who are a little bit more circumspect in offering support to Taiwan because they are much more dependent on China for trade and manufacturing and you know, the economic TiSER so
much more important to them. And then you have the likes of Japan, which has largely been relatively neutral on the Taiwan issue, but over the past two years there's been a real significant shift in how Japan is willing to publicly state its support for for Taiwan UM and the fact that you know, the securety of the Taiwan straight equals Japan's national security too, so they've um they really are a little bit of an outlier in Asia, and their willingness to say things about Taiwan that you know,
possibly risk annoying Beijing. UM. And so definitely there's a there's a there's different stances across Asia about how the US interacts with Taiwan and the willingness to speak out in favor of it. What is the reaction from the people in Taiwan to this, you know, potential trip and would a trip to Taiwan from Nancy Pelosi actually benefit Taiwan? Well, it's been very interesting to watch the reaction here in Taiwan.
It's been a collective shrug. To be perfectly honest. It has not dominated the news cycle at all over the last week really. I mean, it's been in the news, but it hasn't been the top story throughout UM. And it really is seen as a you know, partially because there are questions about whether this trip really is in Taiwan's best interests um. You know, it does it bring any concrete benefit to Taiwan, um. You know, in some ways it does create a bit of a headache for Taiwan.
You know, it thrust Taiwan very much into the global limelight. Uh. And Taiwan isn't really able to you know, Taiwan always welcomes international recognition or or a little bit of you know, it's time in the lightline limelight in the international stage because it is typically denied a lot of participation in international affairs UM. And so they welcome all of these
kinds of trips. But it becomes very difficult for Taiwan to then like push back potentially on the United States and say, hey, actually, is this in our best interest right now? You know, do we really need to have respond to an angry re action from China to this trip. But on the other side, you know what Pelosi's trip does do is it does demonstrate continued, on going strong US support for Taiwan from across the US political spectrum.
Is there's not just an executive issue that on the legendstive of sides, Taiwan does enjoy incredibly strong support in the US at a time when President Biden is hoping to have a face to face meeting with Chinese President Chi Junping. I mean, it was last week that Biden
essentially supported the One China policy. So this is a very difficult piece of real estate for the US to try to negotiate, no doubt, and I think it's become quite clear over the past two weeks that there is a little bit of there's not unity on the U s side about this trip that the White House would
have may be preferred it not to happen, especially right now. Um. And then you know, obviously there's the question of how much that's understood in beiging that you know, this division of powers, and that the White House cannot order Pelosi to back off the trip. Um they simply don't have the power to do so. Nanti Plosi is obviously very much her own woman, and if she wants to go, she's going to go, all right. We will continue to monitor.
Thank you so much too, Bloomberg Sampson llis Taipei Bureau chief with us from Taipei.