“Just days before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was expected to visit Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a request of President Biden: Find a way to keep Pelosi from visiting,” the Washington Post reports.
“Xi’s request in a July 28 call with Biden, described by a senior White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive conversation, followed myriad warnings Chinese officials made to U.S. counterparts of what China might do in retaliation for Pelosi’s visit to the self-governing island that Beijing considers part of its territory.”
“But Biden told Xi he could not oblige, explaining that Congress was an independent branch of government and that Pelosi (D-Calif.), as with other members of Congress, would make her own decisions about foreign trips, the official said. Biden also warned Xi against taking provocative and coercive actions if the House speaker were to travel to Taiwan, the official said.”
