Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., on Sunday defended his trip to Taiwan with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which triggered China launching 11 ballistic missiles around the island and other antagonistic moves which could threaten the relationship between China and the U.S.
I talked with Krishnamoorthi, of Schaumburg, about the speaker’s controversial visit and how China used it as a pretext for more military activity in the Taiwan Straits over the island Beijing claims.
We also discussed the Japan leg of his trip with former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan.
Krishnamoorthi, who represents the 8th Congressional District anchored in the northwest suburbs, was part of a congressional delegation hitting Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea — five nations in five days. On July 20, President Joe Biden was asked if Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan was a “good idea,” and he replied: “I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now.”
The following is an edited transcript of our conversation:
On why the Pelosi delegation made the trip after Biden said it was not a good idea. “We are the part of government that has to authorize the funding to support not only our armed forces in their mission, with regard to resisting the People’s Republic of China, and that part of the world, should PRC [Peoples Republic of China] resort to force.
“...And so it’s incredibly important that we talk directly to our friends and partners, to understand what their needs are, to make sure that what we are authorizing is spent properly and to conduct oversight to make sure that we do what our constituents expect us to do in this regard.”
On the live fire drills China conducted after the delegation left: “I feel that these belligerent actions are incredibly irresponsible. Of course, they predate our visit to Taiwan. They’ve done this many times before, and now they’re doing it again. But if the price of avoiding that type of belligerent and irresponsible behavior is to cede control of Taiwan or to cede control of our travel schedule to the Chinese Communist Party, that’s a price that we’re not going to pay.”
“... But I think it’s fair to say that many of us on this trip have been incredibly outspoken in our desire to make sure that what happened with regard to Ukraine does not happen with regard to Taiwan.”
On the whirlwind trip: Most memorable was “spending time with our troops, especially the ones from Illinois” on duty in each country, either at embassies, or bases.
On seeing Emanuel — former Chicago mayor, congressman and Obama chief of staff — in his role as ambassador: Emanuel arranged a series of meetings with the prime minister of Japan “and a bevy of other leaders and parliamentarians including the speaker of their House of Representatives, as well as business leaders.”
On pitching business for district: In Japan, “I put on my salesman hat and tried to sell some of these business leaders on doing more business in Illinois and certainly, in my congressional district, which by the way, has the largest concentration of Japanese-owned headquarters of any congressional district in the country.”
Those companies include outposts of Fujifilm in Hanover Park; Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Itasca and Hitachi High Tech America in Schaumburg.
Other insight on Emanuel, who was with the delegation the entire time in Japan: Emanuel has “frequent dialogue” with Japan’s leaders and dignitaries. “He’s practically on texting terms with a lot of them. And I think that’s important because, you know, for us to communicate with the Japanese prime minister and others, we need to be able to do so frequently and in different ways.
“... Let me put it this way. I think that the prime minister of Japan said he gets a lot of advice from Rahm Emanuel directly.
“... He actually is a cheerleader for Illinois. And I think that it’s important for us to use his position as the ambassador to Japan, but also an Illinoisan, to both gain greater market access for goods and services in Illinois, but also to get more investment from Japan into Illinois.”
More observations on Rahm as an ambassador, having seen him in his other jobs: “I think the energy that he brings to the ambassador position resembles the energy that he brought to a lot of his other roles. And you want an energetic, proactive ambassador, asserting our interests and cultivating our interests in Japan.”
