White House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is leading a congressional delegation in Asia – conspicuously leaving out a planned trip to Taiwan in Sunday's statement – former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, while imploring the delegation to still make a stop in Taiwan.
Failing to do so, after threats from China's Xi Jinping to President Joe Biden "playing with fire," would ultimately prove the Biden administration's weakness on the world stage, Pompeo told Sunday's "The Cats Roundtable" on WABC 770 AM-N.Y.
"The world has an expectation she wanted to go there," said Pompeo to host John Catsimatidis. "She had planned to go there. To the extent that plan changes now to what it was – that's a really, really risky thing."
A threat like Xi's "those who play with fire will perish by it" made in a call with Biden this week just would not have happened with former President Donald Trump or under his administration, according to Pompeo.
"For four years we didn't see this kind of thing happen," he said. "We had American officials travel to Taiwan. We conducted navigation through the Straits of Taiwan during our four years, many, many times.
"The Chinese never threatened to shoot down an American plane. While they would make claims, they would say hostile things, we were always confident that they understood that America was serious and shows real resolve in defending the American people."
The latest alleged threat to down Pelosi's plane shows China has a more bold approach with Biden in the White House, Pompeo continued.
"I think they don't have that same fear; I don't think they have that same respect for American presidency that they had just 18, 19 months ago now," he said. "That presents an awful lot of risk to the United States of America."
Pompeo blames Biden for bowing to China's threat.
"I don't agree with Speaker Pelosi very often, but she made it clear that she wanted to go visit, on her own, to visit Taiwan, an independent, sovereign nation," Pompeo said. "Now, the Biden administration is saying, 'Well, maybe that's not smart.'"
"To allow America to be bullied by Chinese propaganda – right after, frankly, President Biden's had a phone call, a long phone call with Xi Jinping," Pompeo continued, "would send a really bad message to our friends in the region – the Australians, the South Koreans, the Japanese.
"But mostly, it would tell the American people that it's OK if the United States permitted a communist party a long ways away to dictate how Americans will behave, where we will travel, the things we will say."
This is not the first time those in America have bended to China's wishes, Pompeo added, noting the movie industry and the NBA have altered its approaches under China's thumb.
"We've seen this happen for a long time, where Hollywood has kowtowed to the Chinese Communist Party – where the NBA has kowtowed to the Chinese Communist Party," Pompeo warned. "It shouldn't be the case where an American administration, the president of the United States, should do the same thing."