Who doesn’t want to get into a staring contest with Joe Biden? China’s Xi is happy to do it.

The latest pretext is Pelosi’s planned trip to Taiwan. China, smelling a weak old horse, has been aggressively amping up the rhetoric and the threats. And Biden has been pushing Pelosi to cancel the trip, which only made China threaten harder.

Administration officials have shared their concerns not only about Pelosi’s security during the trip, but also worries about how China may respond to such a high-profile visit. With China recently reporting its worst economic performance in two years, Xi finds himself in a politically sensitive place ahead of an important meeting regarding extending his reign and could use a political win, multiple officials told CNN.

Why exactly is the Biden regime making the Chinese regime’s case for it? This reminds me of how Obama’s people would make the case for Iran and talk about its sensitivities. 

Behind the scenes, Biden administration officials have been working to spell out the potential risks of a visit in meetings with Pelosi and her team.

Pentagon officials briefed the speaker last week about Taiwan and the heightened tensions in the region, according to people familiar with the matter. White House officials were also present for the briefing.

The President let slip last week that the US military was opposed to Pelosi visiting Taiwan now, but the White House has refused to expand on his comments. 

Behind the scenes and leaked to the media so that China can read all about America’s weakness.

Do we need a confrontation with China now? Maybe not. But once the trip was announced, calling it off would be a sign of weakness and gives China the green light to go further. And the White House sending along China’s threats to a House Speaker from its own party is nothing short of insane and treasonous. 

If this show of submission was supposed to appease China, it’s instead having the opposite effect. The Communists are pushing harder.

“The U.S. … must not arrange for Pelosi to visit the Taiwan region,” Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Senior Col. Tan Kefei said Tuesday. “Should the U.S. side insist on doing otherwise, the Chinese military will never sit idl[y] by and will certainly take strong and resolute measures to thwart any interference by external forces and secessionist attempts for ‘Taiwan independence’ and firmly defend China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“And frankly, that kind of rhetoric is unnecessary and uncalled for,” John Kirby, the White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said Tuesday in response to the Chinese Defense Ministry’s remonstrance. “And there’s no trip to speak to, and rhetoric of that kind only escalates tensions … so we find that unhelpful and, certainly, not in the least necessary given the situation.”

China’s message is a military threat and the Biden administration’s message is that military threats are “unnecessary and uncalled for” and “unhelpful”.

It’s not hard to tell which side is winning the war of nerves.