Pelosi’s ‘reckless’ Taiwan visit deepens US-China rupture – why did she go?

Nancy Pelosi in Tokyo following her visit to Taiwan. Her visit may have hurt the very cause she was seeking to promote. Photograph: Franck Robichon/EPA

Roy Blunt lived up to his surname when he said this week: “So I’m about to use four words in a row that I haven’t used in this way before, and those four words are: ‘Speaker Pelosi was right.’”

The Republican senator was praising Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the first by a speaker of the US House of Representatives in a quarter of a century.