Aug 11, 2022

Speaker Pelosi holds news conference after returning from Taiwan visit Transcript

Speaker Pelosi holds news conference after returning from Taiwan visit Transcript
RevBlogTranscriptsChinaSpeaker Pelosi holds news conference after returning from Taiwan visit Transcript

Speaker Pelosi holds news conference after returning from Taiwan visit. Read the transcript here.

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Speaker Pelosi: (00:00)
… the president of Singapore. Good afternoon, everyone. Some of us have just come from the White House, where the President really signed a monumental bill: the Honoring our PACT Act for our veterans. It was legislation spearheaded in the House by Mr. Takano, Chair of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and in keeping with our purpose: honoring our oath to protect and defend, and again, to honor our veterans for their service. As we have said: in the battlefield, we leave no soldier behind, and when they come home, we leave no veteran behind. Protecting to defend is what our CODELs are always all about. Defense. That’s the justification. We expand that to conclude economic issues, as well as governance issues. Security, economy, governance.

Speaker Pelosi: (00:59)
To that end, we follow the lead of our President, who made clear that one of his priorities was a strong Asian Pacific initiative to increase our cooperation in those fields: security, economy and governance. It was a remarkable trip, in which I’m very proud to have traveled. We’re like six co-chairs of the delegation because we all brought so much to it. But again, I’m very thrilled, almost emotional about what happened at the White House today. But actually, it’s what this week has been about. The CHIPS bill as a national security bill that was signed yesterday. The PACT bill today. Again, yesterday afternoon, the President signing the authorization for our support of Sweden and Finland coming into NATO. And then on Friday, when we passed the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, again, recognizing a strong economy is central to a strong defense of our country.

Speaker Pelosi: (02:11)
So again, we went to, as you know, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Republic of Korea, and to Japan. In all of the countries, we met with the leadership of the country. But important to us and central to it was our interparliamentary meetings, to show that we see the role of Congress in strengthening the discussion. We went with humility. We went with respect to listen, to learn what their views were about what the President was proposing, and sharing with candor and respect how we saw things. It was very constructive in that way. We also had the privilege of being, well, here we are in some meetings. They’re self-explanatory. That’s the Prime Minister of Singapore, who welcomed us grandly. But we also paid respects to some of the cultural aspects of their country that they were so proud of in all of the countries. And perhaps we’ll go into that.

Speaker Pelosi: (03:16)
Again, six co-chairs. The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Gregory Meeks, and you’ll hear from him in a moment. Mark Takano, Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Suzan DelBene, the Vice Chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Member of the Intelligence Committee. And Andy Kim, who cannot be with us, child care. He was gone last week, child care issues. He has two little boys. And he is a former diplomat working in the State Department under President Obama and a Member of the Foreign Affairs as well as the Armed Services Committee. He sort of was our diplomat on the trip, would you say? And we miss him here, but he’s available to answer any questions you may have. The beautiful diversity of our trip, imagine this, the beautiful diversity of the trip, which is self-evident. But Mr. Takano, Japanese American. Mr. Krishnamoorthi, born in India. Andy Kim’s parents born in Korea. So the respect for culture, country and differing views, so eminent for all of us on the committee, but some of it directly connected in that way. The purpose, as I say, was to talk about defense, economy and governance. And our Members will talk about some of that. But in each of the countries, we thank them all for their immediate and strong response to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Especially those in South Asia, we thank them for their leadership and just banning Burma, as I call it, from participating in some of their meetings in reaction to their execution of four political leaders there and their oppression of political dialogue there. It was remarkable to see. But, of course, in terms of governance, we talked about COVID, we talked about climate change, and the rest. It was very valuable. And in different countries, we had specific issues that related to their countries, which we can talk about, if you wish.

Speaker Pelosi: (05:38)
In terms of Taiwan, our purpose in going to Taiwan was to say that we have this strong relationship built on the status quo, which we support, which is really important, because they’re saying, “Well, we’re trying to upset…” No. The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, at the same time as our change of recognition, to establish the terms of our relationship, the Three US-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances. So there is no departure from that. But in keeping with that, we will not allow China to isolate Taiwan. They have kept Taiwan from participating in the World Health Organization, other things where Taiwan can make a very valued contribution, and they may keep them from going there, but they’re not keeping us from going to Taiwan. We will not allow them to.

Speaker Pelosi: (06:34)
So we think that their reaction… That was our purpose, to salute this thriving democracy. Don’t take it from me. Freedom House said, “One of the freest democracies in the world.” Show our respect for that, for the success of their economy, for the enthusiasm of their young people to embrace a democracy, and others as well, but the young, knowing nothing else except a free Taiwan. That was our purpose. Their pretext was our visit, for them to do what they normally do, intensified. They didn’t do it when the Senate went under Chairman Menendez of the Foreign Relations Committee. They just decided to do it this time.

Speaker Pelosi: (07:21)
So in any of that, we’re very proud of our delegation. We’re very proud of our men and women in uniform. When I talk about security, whether it was at Travis Air Force Base, whether it was in Hawaii where we visited with them and went to the Arizona, and then to Guam on our way to get their appraisal of the situation in the region, the Asian Pacific. And also to pay our respects to our men and women in uniform, which we did there and we did in the countries that we visited, especially in Korea and in Japan. And in Korea, we had the privilege, led by General LaCamera, to go to the DMZ to get an up-to-date, current report of the North-South dynamic in Korea. It was interesting to me, because I’ve been to Pyongyang. I’ve been to North Korea, it’s a horrible place. But again, we were seeing at the border, how things were going.

Speaker Pelosi: (08:24)
So for these and other reasons, we were very honored to be received. We thank the host countries. We spent a good deal of time, in an interparliamentary way, in every country with their speakers and that. And again, we thank our embassies and our diplomats, who represent us so well and who made our visit such a success.

Speaker Pelosi: (08:47)
Just close by saying two things. When we were in Japan, we were beautifully welcomed at the Diet. We went there to pay our respects to Prime Minister Abe, who was a friend of America, and they had their tribute. They’ll have more, but this one they invited us to. It was very sad. But again, a connection between our two countries.

Speaker Pelosi: (09:12)
And in closing, I just want to thank our President. He has been a President for peace, for security, for economic growth, for good governance. And we’re very proud of his initiative, which was the main purpose of our visit and our timing.

Speaker Pelosi: (09:27)
With that, I want to yield to our distinguished Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee… Excuse me, that’s the Senate. The Foreign Affairs Committee, and the place where so much of all of this begins, to praise him for his commitment to our security, our economic success and good governance in all the countries that we are engaged with. Mr. Chairman, Gregory Meeks of New York.

Gregory Meeks: (09:57)
I want to thank you, Madam Speaker, for the opportunity to participate in this very important-

Gregory Meeks: (10:03)
Ability to participate in this very important, very substantial and very successful CODEL. It was important for us to be there in the region. The people of the region wanted to see us there. They understand that part of what is taking place in the world is as we see from place after place, it’s a question of democracy versus an autocratic government. And they want to know that we are partners, and that’s why they welcomed us at every stop that we went to saying, “Thank you for being here,” whether it was Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, or Malaysia. In Taiwan, we saw people lined up down the streets, over 250,000 people watching our flight land. And then the crowds on the streets saying, “Thank you for coming.”

Gregory Meeks: (11:09)
We had the opportunity to talk and to have conversation with various of our legislators, which was really important and we had then chatted back and forth on what we’re doing. And I had the opportunity as chair of the foreign affairs committee, let them know that we are doing many things, particularly in regards to the Taiwan. We’ve got some bills that were coming out or that have passed already, like the Taiwan Peace and Stability Act. They were interested to know that, like the Taiwan Fellowship Act and the Taiwan Reassurance Act and provision supporting the name change of TECRO to the Taiwan Representative Office in the United States.

Gregory Meeks: (11:50)
Again, it is not us who want to change the status quo. We see that coming from Beijing. And they were so appreciative that we stood to show that we’re going to partner with our friends and allies throughout the region. They all have issues, whether it’s the South China Sea, or the Taiwan Straight, but they want to know that we are there and they want to see even our soft power. And that’s why the conversations that you see with my fellow members, and they’ll talk about, whether it’s working with our veterans or dealing with climate or dealing with what was historic with reference to chips, and exchanges and dealing with manufacturing goods in the United States.

Gregory Meeks: (12:41)
I conclude just by saying that, and I thank President Biden also for being in the region, he’s visited the region and done other thing. So we are in lockstep with our focus and our message to the people in Southeast Asia, that you have a friend, an ally, and a partner in the United States of America. And when you call to ask us to come to visit you, as we did on this trip, we’ll be there with you. So with that, I just turned it over to the chair of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Chairman Mark Takano.

Mark Takano: (13:20)
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We kind of call each other Mr. Chairman all the time. When we first became chairmen, we were just so thrilled in 2018, ” Mr. Chairman.” So good afternoon. I am Mark Takano, I chair the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and I was honored to attend this congressional delegation, will be a part of the congressional delegation with Speaker Pelosi and our colleagues here today.

Mark Takano: (13:46)
While we were abroad, there was interest with our defense security allies and partners. Some were allies and some are partners. Interesting enough, we visited all very, very robust, inspiring democracies. Some of those democracies have a quote unquote, balanced approach with China. They don’t really want the United States to force them to choose sides, but interesting enough, even those that don’t want to be forced to choose sides are very, very, very interested in the United States being their security partner. We help them with military armaments and training together. And of course, they were interested in what we do with our veterans.

Mark Takano: (14:36)
I had a long extensive talk with the defense minister of Malaysia on that topic. I had a chance to speak for a second time with the minister for veterans and patriots of South Korea. We’re very interested in moving forward, more work on the Korean Valor Act, which was included in the recently past fiscal ’23 NDAA, the Valor Act was passed. I don’t want to get into the details yet, but it has to do with naturalized Korean American veterans from the Vietnam War era and how we can serve them better here in the states.

Mark Takano: (15:20)
We had a chance to wherever we could, bring up the issue of human rights, but also I believe when we visit all democracies, that the health of any democracy is measured by how well it protects its vulnerable minorities, in contrast to the authoritarian countries that Mr Meeks mentioned. And so we raised the issue of, how well are your vulnerable minorities being treated, including LGBTQ people? So we raise that in countries where that topic is not necessarily one that’s very comfortable. But interesting enough, I think there was actually a willingness to talk and a willingness to discuss those things.

Mark Takano: (16:06)
Just last night, as an after effect of this CODEL, I was on a virtual inter-parliamentary discussion with Japanese and Korean parliamentarians from the South Korean Assembly and leaders of the Japanese [inaudible 00:16:27]. The impact of this trip was very evident, huge openness to moving forward the trilateral alliance among Japan, the United States and Korea. So very, very important with regard to the Taiwan Straits issue and having our countries work more closely together.

Mark Takano: (16:44)
One of the things that came out of that discussion last night is all of us are calling upon our heads of state to get a summit of the three nations to happen. And that’s one of the things that I think is an after effect of this trip is that, there’s this huge openness that I see. I’m not talking about Taiwan so much, but really this trilateral alliance is really so important, in terms of our being able to provide a space for Taiwan to exist in the status quo. And it’s China, China who is challenged the status quo.

Mark Takano: (17:24)
With that, I want to turn it over to Suzan DelBene, the vice-chair of the Ways and Means Committee.

Suzan DelBene: (17:32)
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, so I’ll use your word, Chairman Takano. I’m Suzan DelBene, vice chair of the Ways and Means Committee. I’m from the great state of Washington and Chairman Meeks, [inaudible 00:17:44] media point out that the Mariners beat the Yankees last night. It was really an honor to be part of this journey with Speaker Pelosi and our entire delegation. And while it was the first time I visited, I think every country, since I’ve been a member of Congress, I have visited the region many times in my former career in business and technology. And I know firsthand the very close partnership that we have, the economic partnership that we have in innovation and the long term partnerships that’s been there, that we can build on. In fact, over half of all global economic growth is expected in this region over the next 30 years.

Suzan DelBene: (18:34)
So it’s was a primary goal of our delegation and the speaker talks about security, economy and governance. On economy, important goal of our delegation was to talk about how we build stronger economic ties throughout the region. Increasing our economic presence is clearly key to advancing other goals that we have, in terms of boosting security and strengthening democracy. So we should be strengthening partnerships and with throughout the region with like-minded countries. And we should also be building on the partnerships we have.

Suzan DelBene: (19:09)
I think it’s very, very important that we are collectively rule makers in the region, not rule takers. This is especially true when it comes to areas where we don’t have strong international norms and standards, such as the rules that govern our digital economy, or consumer rights in the digital economy. In our meetings, we discuss the opportunities of the new economic initiatives, like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or the US Taiwan Initiative for 21st Century Trade and how we can continue to build on those partnerships to address and strengthen supply chains.

Suzan DelBene: (19:46)
So our economy, our collective economies are more resilient in the face of pandemic wars or other future shocks. And we also discussed the CHIPS and Science Act that President Biden signed into law yesterday.

Suzan DelBene: (20:02)
Fact that President Biden signed into law yesterday. Another key piece of legislation to strengthen our supply chains and create the resiliency and redundancy that’s so important. And obviously to make sure we have increased manufacturing capacity right here in the United States. And it’s critical we talked about semiconductors are in everything, not just things that we think of traditional technology from cell phones or computers, but washing machines to ultrasound equipment, to trucks and airplanes. The bill also boosts federal investments in research and innovation so that we can continue to lead the way in years to come. And that’s an opportunity that we can do throughout Asia also.

Suzan DelBene: (20:44)
Our overarching goal is to work together towards shared prosperity, and the speaker talked about shared prosperity a lot on our trip, and how we can use our innovative capabilities to solve new problems, like to address climate change, to advance energy security, to bring down inflation, and to promote equality. So it is a rich conversation, important conversation, one that we will continue moving forward in conjunction with the administration, with Secretary Armando and Ambassador Tai, to continue to build our partnership there.

Suzan DelBene: (21:18)
So I want to now introduce a member of the House Intelligence Committee, a proud representative from Chicago. I think everyone we met knows that Roger Christian Murphy is from Chicago. So let me turn it over to Congresswoman Christian Murphy.

Speaker 1: (21:34)
[inaudible 00:21:34]

Raja Krishnamoorthi: (21:35)
So as a Cubs fan, we are not going to talk about baseball today, sadly. But in any case, thank you so much Speaker Pelosi for including me on this particular trip. Thank you to all of you for paying attention to this congressional delegation trip. Our presence in these various countries was welcome because the United States ultimately is incredibly important for the security of the region. And everywhere we went, as Chairman Takato and others mentioned, the leaders that we met with all said, “We want to strengthen our ties from a security standpoint with the United States, and we want to make sure that you are present in the Southeast Asian region for a long time to come.”

Raja Krishnamoorthi: (22:27)
So to that end, perhaps some of you noticed our visit to Taiwan. We support peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We also believe that nobody, through unilateral effort or the use of force, should change the status quo. And especially in light of what’s happened in Ukraine, we want to make sure that what happened in Ukraine does not happen with regard to the Southeast Asian region and specifically Taiwan. Unfortunately, the People’s Republic of China has engaged in rather provocative measures and live fire exercises, which happened long before we went to Taiwan, and then happened after we went to Taiwan. If the cost of avoiding these types of provocative measures is to cede control of Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China or to cede control of our travel schedules in Congress to the People’s Republic of China, that is not a price we are going to pay.

Raja Krishnamoorthi: (23:34)
That being said, we seek increased economic cooperation in the region. As Vice Chair DelBene mentioned, we did talk about the CHIPS Act. And in that regard, Taiwan has pledged to invest 20 billion in manufacturing semiconductor chips in the United States. This week, on Friday, we’re going to pass through the House a historic inflation reduction act and the largest investment in fighting climate change in our history. We respectfully submit that area of climate change could be a fruitful area of collaboration with the People’s Republic of China.

Raja Krishnamoorthi: (24:16)
Ultimately, we believe that these provocative measures taken by the PRC were an unfortunate attempt to deflect attention from some real problems that are happening within the PRC with regard to their economy and their response to COVID-19. However, we respectfully submit that these provocative measures are going to continue to harm their economy, not enhance it, because it will increase uncertainty for commerce in the region. And as Taiwan’s economy and the rest of the region is so intertwined, any further provocative measures will only hurt the Chinese economy.

Raja Krishnamoorthi: (25:04)
That being said, I’m glad to see that these live fire exercises appear to be easing and these provocative measures appear to be subsiding. And so we look forward to collaborate at a time of collaboration as opposed to increased tensions going forward. Thank you.

Speaker Pelosi: (25:25)
Thank you very much, my colleagues. Thank you very much Cubs fans, Mariner fans, Yankee fans. What are you?

Speaker 2: (25:34)
What am I?

Speaker Pelosi: (25:34)
Yeah.

Speaker 2: (25:35)
[inaudible 00:25:35]

Suzan DelBene: (25:35)
Uh oh. Putting on the spot.

Speaker 2: (25:40)
Angels. [inaudible 00:25:40].

Speaker Pelosi: (25:41)
Giants and Orioles. But in any event, as you may know, baseball is a big sport in Japan.

Suzan DelBene: (25:46)
Yes.

Speaker Pelosi: (25:47)
And we did spend a good deal of time for the Japanese members of parliament bragging about their exports to the United States in that regard. And the cultural aspects of our visit were very unifying, shall we say. When we were in Korea, they said, “We understand you like U2 and Bono’s music,” so they had these beautiful performers come in, playing U2 songs on Korean instruments. We had pictures. You see them there. And then they ended up with Frank Sinatra.

Raja Krishnamoorthi: (26:29)
My Way.

Speaker Pelosi: (26:30)
My Way, yeah. And then, oh gosh, in Singapore, what we saw there was quite remarkable. The park by the bay, the big giant tree and all the rest of that. But they take great pride in their cultures and we wanted to pay our respects.

Speaker Pelosi: (26:46)
One thing I do want to point out, when you see all those empty seats, that’s the diet. You saw all those empty seats in that one film if you looked up, there’s we’re being welcomed in Malaysia, but that’s in Japan. But in the diet, we see all those empty seats. They ring the bell and those seats are filled in a second. And we just film. It’s like people popped up.

Speaker 2: (27:12)
15 minutes. That’s for sure.

Speaker Pelosi: (27:12)
They did. In any event, for these and other reasons, and I want to shoot, this is the DMZ. This is [inaudible 00:27:19]. That building in the back is North Korea. There’s with the prime minister of Japan. We were very honored to be welcomed by him. They’re talking baseball there, I guess. In any event, there it is. In a minute, 30 seconds to be film.

Speaker Pelosi: (27:37)
My colleagues have heard me say this again and again. When I was a student, I was at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, before any of you were born, and perhaps even before your parents were born. But in any event, everybody made a big fuss and students learned all over the world, and certainly in our country, what the president said to citizens of America, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” You all learn that in school, right? Shake your head yes.

Speaker Pelosi: (28:08)
In any event, the next line is what I remembered and struck me. Said, “Citizens of the world ask not what America can do for you, but what we can do working together for the freedom of mankind.” And that’s what this trip was about, and that’s what Joe President Biden is about, working together. No condescension, but consensus building. And that really was our spirit that we brought to this. How can we work together? Listening to your priorities, sharing ours with you, finding our common ground, appreciating our feared values.

Speaker Pelosi: (28:43)
So in that regard, it was inspiring. We come back informed, inspired, and again, ready to work. And one point that has to be made about this, when China does what it does in the Taiwan Strait or in the south China, it has an impact on America’s working families because you cannot tie up the waterways. That just increases cost.

Speaker Pelosi: (29:10)
Oh, look. You just saw a picture of somebody with a selfie. That was a dissident from Tiananmen Square, [inaudible 00:29:19], and I met him when he was 21 years old, when he came right out of Tiananmen Square while people were being crushed under the tanks. And he also happens to be a Uyghur. And Mr. Chairman has been a leader in fighting to highlight what’s happening in the genocide in China, in terms of the Uyghurs. But any event, for many reasons, it was a very unifying trip. That’s in Korea too. Those people were killed by the North Korean. In any event, we’re pleased to take any questions you may have. Yes, ma’am.

Speaker Pelosi: (29:53)
No, we aren’t?

Raja Krishnamoorthi: (29:56)
No way.

Speaker 3: (29:57)
Safe and sound. Welcome back.

Speaker Pelosi: (30:00)
Thank you.

Speaker 3: (30:01)
There are some reports that your son was on-

Speaker 4: (30:03)
Welcome back.

Speaker Pelosi: (30:03)
Thank you.

Speaker 4: (30:03)
There are some reports that your son was on this trip with you.

Speaker Pelosi: (30:05)
Yes, he was. Yes, he was.

Speaker 4: (30:06)
What was his role?

Speaker Pelosi: (30:07)
His role was to be my escort. Usually we invited spouses, not all could come, but I had him come and I was very proud that he was there and I’m thrilled and it was nice for me.

Speaker 4: (30:17)
Did he have any business dealings [inaudible 00:30:19]?

Speaker Pelosi: (30:19)
No, he did not. Of course, he did not. Next question. Yes, ma’am.

Speaker 5: (30:23)
Madam Speaker, so China announced that these military drills around Taiwan are over today. So would you expect China to stop and [inaudible 00:30:32] over Taiwan for a while, or do you expect it to use your visit as a pretext and potentially the drills as a game plan to speed up this timeline of invading Taiwan?

Speaker Pelosi: (30:41)
Well, I think what we saw with China was they were trying to establish a new normal, and we just can’t let that happen. Mr. Chairman, do you want to respond to that in terms of … We don’t know what the Chinese plan, but we know that they were trying to push their way closer to whatever thoughts they have about the future.

Gregory Meeks: (31:03)
Yeah. So look, clearly China had their plans before we took our trip. And what they want to do is to try to deter us from going to visit our friend and ally. And I think what this trip did, which they did not expect is show that no matter what president Xi says, we are going to stand by our friends and allies. So I think that China now has to take a different viewpoint on it because we are unequivocal on what our positions will be with reference to our friends and our allies.

Gregory Meeks: (31:41)
The president visiting when he did and talking about being involved in the region, and now the house of representatives led by the speaker of the house, gave Xi a message that he’s not going to dictate to us on what we do and what we don’t do. And so I would hope that he now understands he should talk to us on those things that we can work with as indicated by my colleagues and with climate, because that’s really important to us and keeping the status quo. Nobody wants to change anything. And so I hope their calculus has changed as they now pull back from the tests and the training period that they’ve done over the last few days.

Speaker Pelosi: (32:29)
Yes, sir.

Speaker 6: (32:31)
Thank you so much. So one thing the Taiwanese envoy here has been very vocal about is a multi billion dollar backlog of foreign military sales to Taiwan in terms of delivery. I understand this also might be an issue with Japan and South Korea. So in your travels was this addressed with our allies and partners and what has the team done to address that backlog?

Speaker Pelosi: (32:52)
Who would like to respond to that?

Raja Krishnamoorthi: (32:53)
Sure.

Speaker Pelosi: (32:54)
All right, [inaudible 00:32:56].

Raja Krishnamoorthi: (32:56)
Yes, that was discussed. This is an ongoing issue. And as you know, given the various needs that we’re trying to supply with regard to Ukraine, there’s increased stress on the supply chain, within the defense industrial base. That being said, I can’t go into details, but we are taking steps with regard to this particular issue, and we intend to fulfill all of our obligations to all of our partners and others who are counting on us for these vital supplies.

Gregory Meeks: (33:32)
And I could just tell you that on the foreign affairs committee, we are working on bills now to help expedite and to reduce red tape, to get defense items that are needed out in a quicker fashion. So we are looking at that right now. We may come and have some hearings on it, but we’re looking at ways so that we can expedite it on the committee, as we speak.

Speaker Pelosi: (33:55)
Yes, sir?

Speaker 7: (33:56)
Madam speaker, given the comments from the president a few weeks ago, saying that the military thought it was not a good idea for you guys to go to Taiwan right now, is this administration being too cautious when it comes to the issue of Taiwan?

Speaker Pelosi: (34:08)
[inaudible 00:34:08] We really do not address any questions about our travels before a trip, and so in keeping with that, I won’t comment on the comment that the president made before our trip. But all I can say is that we are very proud of our military, their preparation and they actually I think minimized the impact of the Chinese on our trip. So they took very good care of us. I don’t remember them ever telling us not to go, the military.

Gregory Meeks: (34:45)
No. And the other thing that they did say, that our soft power in the region is tremendously important to go along and compliment what they’re doing in the region and how we need to work collectively because the people want to know what we are doing and how we are investing in them. So they really welcomed, from our dialogue, us being there and talking about soft power and how we can engage in the region in that manner also.

Speaker Pelosi: (35:11)
Yeah. One more. Yes, sir.

Speaker 8: (35:13)
Madam speaker.

Speaker 9: (35:13)
Madam speaker. Thank you. Do you think the department of justice or the FBI should come forward and offer some kind of either explanation or at least context for the raid on Mar-a-Lago? They may not typically do, but given the [inaudible 00:35:26].

Speaker Pelosi: (35:25)
I think we made it really clear that this meeting was about this [inaudible 00:35:31]. I’ll be having another press conference in the next day or so about legislation and about whatever else is going on, with all due respect to your question. On this subject?

Speaker 8: (35:41)
[inaudible 00:35:41] madam speaker. I know security was important on this trip, but in terms of security here at home, since this action was taken against [inaudible 00:35:47]

Speaker Pelosi: (35:47)
I’m sorry, it’s hard to hear you.

Speaker 8: (35:49)
I apologize. I said, I know security was important on your trip, but just in terms of security here at home, just in light of the action at the former president’s home, is there any concern right now among you or members about your own security, given some of the chatter, this talk about civil war? Some say its on par with January 6th [inaudible 00:36:09]

Speaker Pelosi: (36:09)
Yeah. Well, with all due respect, I place your question in that same category. But we did have a briefing that was long planned before any of the actions of this week, was long planned for security, for members, all members of Congress. On this subject?

Speaker 10: (36:26)
Oh yes, madam speaker. What was your reaction to China’s sanctions against you and your immediate family members?

Speaker Pelosi: (36:33)
There was no reaction. Who cares? Look, I want to tell you something. Let’s enlarge the issue. We’re talking about, as our distinguished chairman and others have mentioned, the struggle between democracy and autocracy. Autocracy is not a peaceful place. So again, whether it’s the South China sea, the straits of Taiwan, whatever’s happening in Tibet in the [inaudible 00:37:06] regions, Hong Kong and the rest. We didn’t go there to talk about China. We went there to praise Taiwan. We went there to show our friendship to say China cannot isolate Taiwan. So, that’s what it was about. That is incidental to me, of no relevance whatsoever. But again, we’ll be together perhaps tomorrow or the next day to talk about other subjects.

Speaker Pelosi: (37:33)
But for now again, I want to thank my colleagues. They just were so fabulous on this trip because they brought knowledge, they brought values, they brought strategic thinking, they brought respect for the people that we met. And may I just say that while we praised our troops and general [inaudible 00:37:54] who took us around, they were fabulous, as you see, every place we could we showcase them, praise them and the rest.

Speaker Pelosi: (38:03)
But on the diplomatic side, we were beautifully represented. Ambassador Kaplan, Ambassador McFeeters, Ambassador Goldberg, Ambassador Emanuel. I was leading up to him, our former colleague, Emanuel, and then our representative [inaudible 00:38:21] in Taiwan. We praise them for their diplomacy, which is very much the soft power that is important to our security as well. We just close by once again, saluting our president for what he has done in our North Atlantic relations, which are so important, as well as his initiative with the Indo-Pacific economic framework. Thank you all so much. Thank you.

Gregory Meeks: (38:48)
Thank you.

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