Media Mention: Council President Interview about the Pelosi trip to Taiwan

US-Taiwan Business Council President Rupert Hammond-Chambers appeared on “Zooming In with Simone Gao” on August 5, 2022. He talked about the visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the implications of that trip.

Speaker Pelosi had every right to travel to Taiwan. Her trip was consistent with American policy for high-level visitors. … The United States should continue to communicate with the Taiwan leadership at the highest levels. We have many mutual interests, and her trip to Taipei to meet President Tsai and some of the Taiwan leadership was entirely consistent.

The PRC has been raising tensions in the Taiwan Strait now for years. It is hard to determine what is a function of the PRC using American policy as an excuse to heighten tensions, and what is just the PLA and the PRC heightening tensions on their own trajectory. I’m not particularly persuaded, frankly, that the PLA reaction … is anything more than just an excuse to continue to ramp up tensions around Pelosi’s trip, when in actuality they were [planning on] doing it anyway.

No one is provoking the Chinese. Countries around the world, including the United States, have every right to have a relationship with Taiwan. Our relationship with Taipei has been remarkably consistent over the decades. The only entity or country destabilizing Asia at the moment – and particularly in the Taiwan Strait – is China.

Source: Zooming In with Simone Gao