25 years ago.
newt, i love that the speaker is
going.
how concerned are you that she
is going to back out?
>> well, look, she has to make
her own decision and i'm sure
the state department is
panic-stricken and begging her
not to do it because the state
department normally is in to
appeasing our enemies.
but i would just say that when
we went 25 years ago and i'm the
highest ranking american ever to
go to taiwan, we actually went
to china.
and the -- but the chinese
communist invited me to give
speeches in beijing and shanghai
and we told them that's
terrific.
by the way we are going to go to
taiwan.
they said you can't do that and
gardner owho was my senator
adviser i remember listening to
him on the phone quelling he a
chinese ambassador and saying
the chinese communist party does
not dictate the travel of the
american speaker.
what we did have to do is we
left china, went to japan,
stopped briefly, then went to
taiwan and went back to japan.
we couldn't go straight.
but when we...