China didn’t want Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan. Neither did the White House. Politico’s Alex Ward explains why she went anyway.

This episode was produced by Miles Bryan and Jon Ehrens, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard with help from Amanda Lewellyn, engineered by Efim Shapiro, and hosted by Noel King.

Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained

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