Washington's lack of wisdom troubles the world: China Daily editorial

United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan exposed that Washington hopes to foster Taiwan's "independence" by slicing the salami.

Her visit demonstrates the lack of political wisdom in the US political circle — which is not restricted to the handling of the most sensitive issue in Sino-US relations.

The paucity of common sense in favor of truth-defying conviction that prevails in Washington is causing myriad troubles in the world.

The generation of statesmen who experienced World War II and laid the foundation for the postwar order, who displayed political wisdom featuring courage, vision and responsibility, have had no inheritors in the contemporary political circle in Washington.

The key perspective with which to observe Pelosi's visit to the Chinese island is not to analyze all its consequences, both immediate and potential, but the root cause that led to her trip. If unaddressed, the defective US political system will continuously scourge the world with its spillover effects, which deserve more attention than those of inflation.

Although US politicians have become more individually self-assertive, with Pelosi as a case in point, they are all busy scrambling for personal political interests, feathering their own nests by abusing their positions, and justifying the costs inflicted in doing so as the price that needs to be paid for an apple-pie world.

Moreover, the self-interest of US politicians is becoming increasingly divergent with those of even their own supporters, although the former have more channels and space to hijack the opinions of the latter. So there is actually no such thing as a "bipartisan agreement" in Congress, only short-lived personal interest alliances.

The cold shoulders Pelosi has met with in the Republic of Korea and Japan, and the reserved receptions she received in Singapore and Malaysia, speaks volumes of her hosts' shared awareness of the divergences between her and the Joe Biden administration, and their reluctance to be implicated in the political entanglements of Washington.

Pelosi's visit to Taiwan has by no means served the US' national interests. And the US will continue to pay for the rise of populism in its elite political circle. The showboating of Pelosi has served to break many tacit political understandings across the Taiwan Straits and in Sino-US relations that have helped to keep the stability of the region and the ties.

It has also highlighted the moral high ground of Beijing, and Beijing will take the initiative to seize the opportunity of this watershed event to transform its agenda into a new normal for the Straits.

China is not seeking confrontation with the US, a country that it thinks it can co-exist with, if not outcompete by doing its own things well given the US' incurable political ailments.

Beijing has been gifted an opportunity to advance the resolution of the Taiwan question in its intended direction by the hubris of the House speaker who believes she has singlehandedly forced it to curve its redline.

Beijing will by no means waste the opportunity.