As many of her political peers in Washington do, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put the label of democracy on her ill-intentioned visit to China's Taiwan island.
She claimed that her visit to Taiwan was in support of democracy and she tried to suggest that it had something to do with the defending of freedom. But many Americans don't know what is behind that label as far as her visit is concerned.
Some US media reports described her trip as personal, a dangerous combination of hubris and self-interest. She wants to pad out her reputation at the end of her career. One detailed analysis concluded that this trip could be seen as a capping off a long record for Pelosi as a human rights advocate and China hawk while she is still speaker.
When some politicians in Washington raise the banner of democracy and freedom when doing something, there is a need to push aside the banner to see what is behind it.
It does not take a great effort to see behind the label of democracy and freedom Pelosi tried to pin on her trip. The trip would cause a worsening of the already fraying relations between the United States and China and putting further stress on the already tense relations across the Taiwan Straits, as the whole world knew what this trip would lead to.
China warned in advance that it would launch resolute countermeasures if Pelosi made this trip and the US should be held accountable for all the consequences.
Pelosi herself could not be too ignorant and unintelligent to know about the serious consequences her trip would cause.
As a veteran politician, she knows that she is playing a game of make-believe when she wraps the real political intentions of her visit to Taiwan within a box with the label of democracy and freedom, but she is so dense-skinned that she is impervious to any criticism if she makes up her mind to do something she believes to be in her own interest.