During a press conference in Tokyo on Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reminisced about a childhood memory, suggesting it showed her “connection” to China.
"When I was a little girl, I was told at the beach if I dug a hole deep enough, we would reach China, so we've always felt a connection there,” Pelosi said when asked a question about the U.S.-China relationship.
Q. Good morning. My name is Jackie. I have a question for the Speaker about China and the reaction of China. The military drill since yesterday: do you think how they think this visit will affect the U.S.-China relationship?
Speaker Pelosi. Could you repeat that?
The visit? Well, our President – we are the House of Representatives, the Congress of the United States. And much of legislation, whether it's trade or appropriations and the rest, begins in the House of Representatives. And so we are one part of this. Our President has his communication with the President of China, and again, this is – we are two big countries. We have to have communication among us.
But when I was a little girl, I was told when at the beach that if I dug a hole deep enough, we would reach China – so we've always felt a connection there. But the fact is, I have said it again and again: if we do not speak out for human rights in China because of commercial interests, we lose all moral authority to speak out about human rights any place in the world. We're trying to find our common ground. China has some contradictions, some progress in terms of lifting people up, some horrible things happening in terms of the Uyghurs. In fact, it's been labeled a genocide.
So, again, we have – we must work with China on issues that relate to the climate crisis, being two of the biggest emitters, and we can learn a lot from China in that regard. But we also have to work together for some decisions.
PELOSI: “When I was a little girl, I was told at the beach if I dug a hole deep enough we would reach China. So, we’ve always felt a connection there.” pic.twitter.com/GaWeXBNtmO
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 6, 2022
Americans have been told the same story as children for generations, but using it to tout a “connection” to China by the House Speaker is very odd to say the least.