Fresh off her tour of Asia, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) touted China as “one of the freest societies in the world.”
While speaking with NBC “Today” host Savannah Guthrie, Pelosi emphasized the importance of her bipartisan trip to Taiwan, that was met with threats from the Chinese Communist Party. The speaker also described China as a “strong democracy.”
“[Y]ou know what? Why don’t we just show China that we support Taiwan? It is part of the U.S. — the Taiwan Relations Act,” Pelosi stated. “We didn’t go there to change our policy. We still support the One China Policy. We go there to acknowledge the status quo is what our policy is. There was nothing disruptive about that. It was only about saying China is one of the freest societies in the world. Don’t take it from me. That’s from Freedom House.”
“It’s a strong democracy; courageous people,” she continued. “I don’t know why it is — except there’s some commercial interests who would like to diminish the relationship. But … tomorrow, we’ll have a press conference; you’ll hear from my other members about the pride we took in going there, the reception we received, the fact that the Chinese are going to do what they’re going to do. And just because … the president of China acts like a bully, has his own insecurities, it doesn’t mean that I’m going to have him do my — the schedule for members of Congress. Members of Congress can show their support for countries and democracies who are our friends. And according to the Taiwan Policy Act, Taiwan is our friend.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent