When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan this August, defying warnings from both China and the Biden administration against making the trip, one top Taiwanese official was notably absent from the high-profile bilateral meetings and wall-to-wall western media coverage.
You Si-kun, the leader of Taiwan’s top legislative body, was sidelined from the U.S. delegation meetings and events – and it had nothing to do with bowing to Beijing’s demands. Instead, You, one of the most outspoken voices for Taiwan’s independence from China, had a more prosaic reason for his absence: He was at home recovering from COVID.
It was a particularly poorly timed bout with the virus. But the outspoken lawmaker will have another chance to make international headlines and rub elbows with other high-ranking lawmakers and global leaders.
