Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Tuesday weighed in on the increased tension from China over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) potential trip to Taiwan.
Cotton told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that American lawmakers traveling to Taiwan was nothing new but lamented that President Joe Biden “chose to make this an issue” amid threats from the Chinese Communist Party. The Arkansas Republican said “there was no reason to escalate” Pelosi’s visit.
“China complains about it anytime a legislator goes to Taiwan, but we’ve never had this level of tension, and it’s because Joe Biden chose to make this an issue,” Cotton explained. “There was no reason to escalate this last month and say the military didn’t want her to travel or to leak her travel plans or to put pressure on her.”
He continued, “It is an example of how Beijing is trying to rewrite the status quo that Beijing is the one taking provocative actions. And Joe Biden is very worried about that, so he begins to scramble publicly. If he had just treated this like every other president has treated legislative trips to Taiwan in the past, I don’t think we would have seen this level of tension.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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