For the week prior to Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s Asian tour, a game of cat and mouse commenced between the United States and China over a potential visit to Taiwan by House Speaker. Originally, Pelosi was indicating she would go despite the White House pushing her not to, another exercise in knee-bending by Joe Biden to the communists.

Pelosi seemed to have agreed at the final moment, putting no mention of Taiwan, which is a country, on her itinerary. Yet, a new report from CNN sourced by Taiwanese and US officials now says she will visit the island.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to visit Taiwan as part of her tour of Asia, according to a senior Taiwanese government official and a US official, despite warnings from Biden administration officials, who are worried about China’s response to such a high-profile visit.

The stop – the first for a US House speaker in 25 years – is not currently on Pelosi’s public itinerary and comes at a time when US-China relations are already at a low point.

The Taiwanese official added that she is expected to stay in Taiwan overnight. It is unclear when exactly Pelosi will land in Taipei.

It looks like the absence of the visit on Pelosi’s itinerary was simply to throw the Chinese off and to buy time. Now that the trip has been leaked, though, the CCP is already rattling its saber. First came a passive-aggressive video showing off China’s supposed military might.

NOW – China's People's Liberation Army just posted a new video on WeChat ahead of Pelosi's potential visit to Taiwan.pic.twitter.com/QaiFcdGCn1

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 1, 2022

Communist propaganda continues to be as cringe in 2022 as it was during the Cold War. It’s one thing to have those kinds of visuals in recruiting videos. It’s another for a country to be so desperate to project power that they do as a brush back to a foreign politician. China’s military, while far better than it was, still has a bit of paper tiger in it. That’s where the Napolean complex comes from. Having a dictator that looks like Winnie the Pooh doesn’t help either.

The threats got more direct after that, though.

BEIJING, Aug 1 (Reuters) – China said on Monday that its military "not sit idly by" if U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan.

— Election Wizard 🇺🇸 (@ElectionWiz) August 1, 2022

What will actually happen when Pelosi enters Taiwanese airspace? I suspect that the Chinese are bluffing and won’t actually do anything but hold some exercises off the cost. They can’t afford an economic war with the US right now, and as to a kinetic war, are they really going to assassinate the US Speaker of the House?

Color me skeptical, but the fact that they’ve threatened to do so is reason enough for Pelosi to go. Far be it from me to defend her on essentially any point, but in this case, it’s not her grotesque personal politics being tested here. Rather, it’s the US resolve in the face of Chinese aggression. The Biden administration has already spent its tenure appeasing the Chicoms, never mind the Biden family’s business connections with the communists. To back down now would be catastrophic for the long-term credibility of US influence.

I’ll close with the caveat that the plans for Pelosi to visit could change again. If China does actually make a move that puts her in danger, she will be removed from the situation immediately. It’s a game of chicken right now, and we’ll see how it ends.