Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

The news that former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo will pay a visit to the island of Taiwan on Wednesday was announced by foreign media several days ago. No one had anticipated that the Biden administration would have preempted it with a visit by his own delegation.

On Tuesday afternoon, US President Joe Biden dispatched a "heavyweight delegation" of five former high-level military officers and national security officials to the island. They received the red carpet treatment from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), a groveling reception that is anticipated to be repeated when Pompeo arrives on Wednesday.

This comes at a time when the morale of the DPP authority remains low and its confidence in the US has been seriously eroded. The panic of the DPP authority is very self-evident. The Biden administration has become aware of this mind-set and is worried that the small pawn of the US in East Asia to "contain Beijing" will be shaken. To this end, Biden suddenly made up his mind to send this delegation in a bid to ease the DPP authority's panic. Although members of the delegation are former senior Washington officials, Biden's "dispatch" has given the group an official status. Just as a spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said previously, the so-called distinction of "official" and "unofficial" is just a cover for their "deception."

Why are those sent to Taiwan all former military officers and senior national security officials? The Biden administration has taken great pains in making the decision. Such an arrangement has an "advantage" - these people can talk as big as possible. They can say whatever the DPP authority hopes to hear and the US government does not have to take any responsibility for it. One can even imagine the kind of conversation that would take place between them. It will be nothing more than lines just like "Don't worry too much, we won't leave you alone." But apart from the self-deceiving DPP authority and the "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces, very few people on the island of Taiwan believe such a trick. This is simply because as long as the DPP authority does not stop its "independence-seeking" moves, no one can guarantee their safety.

Of course, with the DPP authority in such a desperate situation, as long as some Americans can visit the island and put on a show, they will feel excited. There are even crowds of people in Taiwan rushing to curry favor with an infamous  troublemaker like Pompeo. However, no matter how hard the DPP authority searches for beautiful words to flatter Pompeo, they cannot change the fact that he was called the "worst secretary of state in history" in the US. When Pompeo held this position, a US media outlet bluntly said he was "spurned by many foreign allies, ridiculed by adversaries, disliked by a significant number of his own diplomats" and he had "damaged the State Department's reputation, built over centuries of service and sacrifice."

The DPP authority has racked its brains on how to receive Pompeo. It was reported by Taiwan media that regional leader Tsai Ing-wen will award an order of some kind to Pompeo, and a few "DPP lawmakers" are vying to invite him to visit different counties and cities on the island to taste Taiwan food, saying they won't allow Pompeo to go back until he is full and cannot eat anything more.

Of course, it's common to see the DPP authority do this. In recent years, in order to collude with external forces and solicit their support for the so-called path of "resisting the mainland and protecting Taiwan," the DPP authority has bought US weapons and asked Taiwan residents to eat US' poisoned pork containing ractopamine. So what if they really won't allow Pompeo to return until he is quite full?  

However, the safety of the DPP authority cannot be guaranteed even if it treats Pompeo and his like with the Taiwan people's life-blood. For US politicians like Pompeo, Taiwan is nothing more than a pawn to be taken advantage of. Facts have also proven time and again that serving as a pawn of the US always results in a tragic ending. No matter what flamboyant commitments Washington has made, at the critical moment, what it cares about is always the US' interests.

How can Taiwan island get what others have not been able to get from the US? The DPP authority knows this well. Therefore, any disturbance or trouble in the world will make the DPP authority upset as a frightened bird, as if their dead end is approaching. Recently, the DPP authority has quietly stepped up their precautions, starting an inventory of air-raid shelters. For the DPP authority, the nightmare of "being abandoned by the US" is lingering, therefore, as illusory as the clichés of US bipartisan "rock-solid" commitments to Taiwan are, they will be cherished by the DPP authority as a life-saving straw.  

Two groups of former US high-ranking officials will be visiting Taiwan. This is something of a coincidence, but it's not entirely accidental. The US has in recent years ratcheted up its actions to "use Taiwan to contain China," which has objectively instigated the "Taiwan independence." But the attempt to "rely on the US to seek independence" is doomed to fail. Tsai probably has become aware of this, otherwise why has she practiced how to escape in many exercises? When that day comes, whether the Americans would help Tsai flee the island depends on her usefulness.