Security expert says Pelosi is ‘throwing petrol on a fire’ with Taiwan visit

A security expert says US House of Representative speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to visit Taiwan “doesn’t make any sense”.

Ms Pelosi is touring Asia and could visit Taipei as soon as this evening where she’ll meet with the most powerful woman in the Chinese-speaking world, Taiwan’s leader Tsai Ing-wen.

While the United States maintains a functioning, unofficial relationship with Taiwan, its formal diplomatic ties are with China.

US President Joe Biden has refused to back Ms Pelosi’s decision, saying the military believes it’s “not a good idea”.

A chief commentator at Chinese state owned newspaper, The Global Times, has tweeted telling Americans to “wish her a safe journey and wish herself not be defined by history as a sinner who starts a spiral of escalation process expanding military frictions to a large-scale war in the Taiwan Strait”.

Professor of human security at Curtin University, Joe Siracusa, says Ms Pelosi’s trip is “very unhelpful”.

“It’s like throwing petrol on a fire,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“It doesn’t make any sense. It just accelerator a situation that requires a break, not the accelerator.

“The TLA — that is the armed forces of China — are ramped up to do something about it.

“I’m more worried about an accident stemming from some show of zealousness rather than the military going after each other.”

Press PLAY below to hear how Mr Siracusa thinks China will react to the trip

Image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images