Roll up, roll up! It’s the irrelevant versus the incontinent! Very, very former Australian PM Paul Keating is wading into battle, jowls flapping and spittle flying, for his former paymasters. Only slightly former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi is playing the unusual role of Andre the Giant, defending the plucky little democracy of Taiwan against the CCP’s attack curs. After four years of dealing with Joe Biden, Pelosi is more than used to handling dotards who have yet to realise their 15 minutes of political relevance evaporated long ago.
Keating, who coined the phrase ‘relevance deprivation syndrome’, seems completely unable to grasp the irony that he has come to embody that sad, pitiful role, more than any other very ex-politician.
But then, truckloads of Chinese cash can buy a lot of willful blindness. More on that later.
Paul Keating has hit back at former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi after she branded his claim that Taiwan was “Chinese real estate” as a “stupid statement” and questioned his links to Beijing […]
“This is the same Nancy Pelosi who thinks my remarks about ‘One China’ – a policy which the whole world recognises as one country, China and Taiwan – are in some way out of line.”
The whole world? In fact, at least 13 countries recognise Taiwanese sovereignty. And so do the Taiwanese – but, hey, what would they know? It’s only their country.
The rest of the world knows Taiwan doesn’t belong to China but is just too cowardly to say it out loud.
Ms Pelosi, who played a key role in pressuring Mr Biden to stand down to make way for Kamala Harris, took issue with Mr Keating’s claims on the ABC’s 7.30 program last week that Taiwan was “sitting on Chinese real estate”.
“Well, you don’t wanna get my description of him for saying that,” she told the same program on Monday night.
“That’s ridiculous, it’s not Chinese real estate and he should know that. Taiwan is Taiwan and it is the people of Taiwan who have a democracy there. I think that that was a stupid statement.”
Then Pelosi delivered what was surely the remark that really enraged Keating: a massive blow to his ego. Who are you, again?
Ms Pelosi said she had “no idea about Keating”, and wondered aloud why he would make such a statement. “I don’t know what his connection is to China that he would say such a thing,” she said.
Ooh, ooh! We know the answer to that one!
Keating was on the board of the CCP-owned China Development Bank for 13 years – 10 of them as chair.
That should put things into a bit of perspective.
Now you know why he thinks we should ‘celebrate’ the rise of the Nazi Germany of the 21st century.
