Photo by Tim Simons:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrapped up her controversial visit to Taiwan on August 3. The trip outraged China, which has consistently vowed to take complete control of the self-governed island. Now, just one day after Pelosi finished her “pro-Democracy” tour of Taiwan, China has announced live-fire military drills circling around Taiwan.
Beijing, which regards Taiwan as Chinese territory, will conduct the drills from Aug. 4 to Aug. 7.
Taiwan officials are complaining that the drills violate United Nations rules, invade Taiwan’s territorial space, and are a direct challenge to free air and sea navigation, CNBC reported.
The White House wasn’t happy with Pelosi’s trip either. Insiders say, President Joe Biden, although he could not stop her from going, he warned against it. As second in line in the presidential order of succession, Pelosi was the most senior U.S. official to visit Taiwan since then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited in 1997, Foreign Policy reported.
The trip put the U.S. in a precarious situation. According to the “One China” policy the U.S has followed since 1972. The U.S. government’s “One China” policy started under then-President Richard Nixon. Under the policy, the U.S. recognizes only one government in China but maintains unofficial ties to Taiwan. Some political observers say that Pelosi’s trip chips away at One China.
But Biden has also vowed to help defend Taiwan in case of an invasion from China.
Could this be leading to World War III? One has to wonder what would anti-war advocate and civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have said about Pelosi’s escalatory Taiwan trip.
Martin was known, and at the time criticized, for his anti-Vietnam War stance. The Vietnam War ran from November 1, 1955, to April 30, 1975.
King publicly criticized the war for the first time in March 1965, when King declared that “millions of dollars can be spent every day to hold troops in South Vietnam and our country cannot protect the rights of Negroes in Selma, according to the King Institute.
He continued to speak out.
“The greatest irony and tragedy of all is that our nation, which initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world, is now cast in the mold of being an arch anti-revolutionary.” King said about the Vietnam War in a Feb. 25, 1967, speech, called “The Casualties of the War in Vietnam.”
He stressed that American power should be “harnessed to the service of peace and human beings, not an inhumane power [unleashed] against defenseless people.”
He added that the negatives of war are far-reaching.
“But the physical casualties of the war in Vietnam are not alone the catastrophes. The casualties of principles and values are equally disastrous and injurious. Indeed, they are ultimately more harmful because they are self-perpetuating. If the casualties of principle are not healed, the physical casualties will continue to mount, King said, as reported by The Atlantic.
He spoke out again against the war on April 4, 1967, in a speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. He declared, “my conscience leaves me no other choice.”
Photo by Tim Simons: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-shot-of-martin-luther-king-jr-memorial-8017622/
