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Why is the Chinese government so upset with the U.S.? & Why= are the U.S. Democrats talking more about “freedom”?

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Why is the Ch= inese government so angry about Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan? James Lee on rhetorical thunder, military build-up, and the pote= ntial for armed conflict.

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China= is conducting live-fire military exercises around Taiwan and= has cut off trade and diplomatic relationships with the island and the U.S= ., in a forceful response to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pe= losi’s visit to Taipei this week. For decades, Taiwan has been a majo= r source of tension between Beijing and Washington, and Pelosi’s trip= was the first by a House speaker in 25 years. Pelosi met with Taiwan&rsquo= ;s president and business leaders during her one-day visit, but she didn&rs= quo;t close any substantial trade or defense deals or express any change in= U.S. policy. With Chinese-U.S. relations already frayed, many officials in= President Joe Biden’s administration had spoken out publicly against= the trip, and the president’s national-security team advised her not= to go. After Pelosi’s brief stay, Beijing started naval drills withi= n 10 miles of Taiwan, closer than any previous exercises and an apparent si= mulation of an invasion. Taiwanese government websites were hacked, and Chi= na suspended imports of fruit and fish from the island while banning export= s of sand, a key building material. Beijing also fired five missiles into w= aters claimed by Japan and severed military and cultural cooperation with t= he United States. Given the clear lack of support from the U.S. administrat= ion for Pelosi’s short and uneventful visit, why is China reacting so= strongly to it?

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James= Lee is an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica in Ta= iwan and the author of a forthcoming book about the history of U.S. strateg= y in East Asia. According to Lee, the Chinese leadership was unusually ange= red by the visit because they see Pelosi as a high-ranking representative o= f the U.S. government and its positions—they view American politics t= hrough the lens of a one-party state, so they don’t see any differenc= e between her words or actions and the president’s. Lee says that Bei= jing also wants to express its antipathy toward Taiwan’s President Ts= ai Ing-Wen, whose party rejects the Chinese position that the island belong= s to the People’s Republic. China’s President Xi Jinping, meanw= hile, faces acute domestic political challenges with the economy and ongoin= g Covid lockdowns, giving him reason to take an especially hard line on Tai= wan as a show of strength. Tensions over Taiwan have been rising—and = visits by senior U.S. officials more frequent—in recent years, but to= Lee, it’s unclear whether the likelihood of a Chinese invasion is in= creasing with them. Xi’s intensive military build-up might be a sign = of an eventual attack, or he might just be using tensions around the island= to justify a rapid military expansion.

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In a Name

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What’s = at stake in the U.S. Democratic Party’s new focus on the idea of &ldq= uo;freedom”? David Kusnet on the new variations in o= ne of the oldest controversies in American political life.

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Militiadi= s Fragkidis

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&ldqu= o;We are the party of freedom,” the Democratic U.S. con= gressman Eric Swalwell posted to Twitter on July 8. “Freedom to make = your own health-care choices. Freedom from your fear of gun violence. Freed= om to have your vote counted. … Freedom for all.” It was a few= days after his country’s Independence Day, when his fellow Democrat = and California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, took the unusual step of run= ning a political advertisement in Florida—on the right-leaning Fox Ne= ws Channel, no less—with a similar message. Floridians’ freedom was being threatened, Newsom said, under the leadership= of Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican who’s previously celebrated h= is state as “freedom’s vanguard” in America. Meanwhile, a= ccording to reporting by The Washington Post, since the U.S. Supreme Court = overturned Roe v. Wade in June and ended the constitutio= nal right to abortion in America, there appears to have been a “drama= tic increase” in the use of the term freedom—a co= ncept more commonly invoked for decades among Republicans—“in s= ocial media messaging of Democratic leaders and left-wing influencers and o= rganizations.” Contestation over this term isn’t new, of course= ; it’s arguably as old in the United States of America as the country= itself. But why is it reemerging now?

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David= Kusnet, an American communications strategist, was President Bill= Clinton’s chief speechwriter during his 1992 presidential campaign a= nd first term in office. Kusnet agrees with those who see a new opening for= his party to talk about freedom, particularly with Americans generally opp= osing so many recent Republican restrictions in health care, voting, and ed= ucation. As this opportunity creates new political debates, Kusnet understa= nds these debates in part as reviving old ones about the kinds of freedom t= hat America should prioritize—for instance, the freedom from= government intrusion versus the freedom to li= ve with opportunity and economic security. Yet he also understands today&rs= quo;s disputes about freedom as distinctive in important ways: They’r= e unfolding in an extraordinary political climate, influenced by populist i= deas, and leading in uncertain directions—as Democrats, who are tradi= tionally pro-union, increasingly return to emphasizing freedom for workers,= while Republicans, who are traditionally pro-business, increasingly adopt = new culture-war rhetoric targeting “woke” corporations dominate= d by progressive values as enemies of a free society.

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The Signal = explores urgent questions in current events around the world—to suppo= rt it and for full access:

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