House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) visit to Taiwan, completed in defiance of belligerent threats from the hideous regime in Beijing, drew genuine bipartisan support from U.S.

A considerable number of sitting Republican legislators and former Trump administration officials expressed public support for Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

If we are so intimidated by the Chinese Communists we can’t even protect an American Speaker of the House, why should Beijing believe we can help Taiwan survive?

Timidity is dangerous,” Pelosi’s predecessor Newt Gingrich, the last Speaker of the House to visit Taiwan, said in a characteristic Republican comment.

Gingrich summed up the two primary strains of bipartisan support for Pelosi’s trip: China has no business dictating where Americans can travel, and demonstrating America’s sincere support for Taiwan is important.

On the latter point, polls consistently show strong American support for Taiwan, with allowances for the fact that domestic issues are understandably their paramount concern at the moment.

Demonstrators take part in a protest against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) visit on August 02, 2022 in Taipei, Taiwan.

flag after stamping on an image depicting the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a protest outside the U.S.

The poll found strong majority support for less dramatic propositions, such as establishing formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan and furnishing the Taiwanese with U.S.

In late July, Morning Consult ran another poll that found over 60 percent of Americans support Taiwanese independence – and that figure rises to 92 percent for voters who professed to have a strong opinion on the matter.

Pro-China demonstrators protest outside the Grand Hyatt hotel ahead of the arrival of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Taipei, Taiwan, on Tuesday, Aug.

This would buttress Gingrich’s point that visible demonstrations of American support for Taiwan, including official visits like Pelosi’s, are important to audiences in both Taiwan and China.

These polls tend to show more of a partisan split than support for Taiwan, as younger and more left-leaning Americans are considerably more likely to have a positive opinion of Communist China than moderates and conservatives from the heartland.

Whatever else Americans from various political and demographic quarters might think about the menace of Chinese communism, it was a clarifying moment to see Chinese officials threatening the Speaker of the House with imprisonment or death for daring to visit Taiwan