Pelosi’s expected Taiwan trip highlights her long defiance of Beijing

Analysis: The House speaker, who stood up for activists in Tiananmen Square in 1991, has long seen the role as part of her job

Thirty-one years ago, a relatively new congresswoman from California surprised Chinese authorities when she unfurled a banner in Beijing's Tiananmen Square dedicated to the pro-democracy student activists massacred there.

Now the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is poised to travel to Taiwan during a tour of Asia nations this week, once again defying Beijing at a moment of extraordinary tension between the US and China - but also creating a host of problems for Joe Biden.