Nancy Pelosi defies Chinese threats with her arrival in Taiwan | International

Nancy Pelosi has ignored the threats from China and the advice of the US government itself. The president of the United States House of Representatives has complied with her initial plan and landed in Taiwan this Tuesday after 10:40 p.m. (local time, 4:40 p.m. in mainland Spain). The visit, which was not formally announced and is part of her tour of the Asia-Pacific that begins Monday, will infuriate Beijing and worsen already soured relations between the two major world powers.

“Our delegation’s visit honors America’s unwavering commitment to Taiwan’s vibrant democracy,” has tweeted democrat politics few minutes after landing. “American solidarity with the 23 million Taiwanese is more important today than ever, at a time when the world is divided between autocracy and democracy,” she added. In an article published in Washington Post During her landing, Pelosi made China ugly about its role in Hong Kong and Tibet, as well as “the genocide of the Uyghur minority.” “With this trip, we honor our commitment to democracy: we reaffirm that the freedoms of Taiwan, and of all democracies, must be respected.”

Both shores of the Strait of Formosa have seen how the troops deployed have increased before Pelosi’s arrival on the island. The state agency Xinhua has announced that Beijing will carry out military exercises with live fire in the vicinity of the entire island, from August 4 to 7. The Ministry of Defense, for its part, has stated that the People’s Liberation Army is “on high alert” and will respond with “a series of selective military operations to defend national sovereignty.” According to the AFP agency, there were about twenty Chinese air raids on Taiwan on Tuesday.

Given the increase in the military presence of the Asian giant in the vicinity of Taiwan, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense has warned that it will send reinforcements to the dividing line of the Strait of Formosa to deter “enemy threats”. The island has also raised its military alert level. According to Taiwanese media, several ships – a missile destroyer and a frigate – have been near its waters since Monday. The two aircraft carriers of the Chinese Navy – the Liaoning and the Shandong—They are also sailing in the waters of the South China Sea, according to the official newspaper GlobalTimes.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has condemned the visit in a lengthy statement for sending “a wrong message about Taiwan’s independence to separatist forces.” “There is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of it. And the only legitimate government is that of the People’s Republic of China”, adds the text. The country emphasizes that the culprit for the increase in tensions and challenges in the strait is the Taiwanese and US authorities for “constantly changing the status quo”. “Completing the reunification of the motherland is a common aspiration of the 1.4 billion Chinese and a duty of all Chinese children.”

The social networks of the most populous nation on the planet are full of nationalist messages. This Tuesday, countless videos and photos of Chinese Army vehicles circulating in them are being transferred to the southern city of Xiamen, located about 300 kilometers from Taiwan, and where a military base is located.

In Washington, John Kirby, Communications Coordinator of the White House National Security Council, reiterated on Tuesday the official message that the United States has been repeating these days, after last Thursday Biden and Xi had a phone call with the tension of Pelosi’s trip in the background. Kirby went live on major news networks to stress that the visit “involves no violations or issues of sovereignty.” On CNN he reaffirmed his support for the “one China policy.” To a large degree, Pelosi’s stubbornness has marred a big day in foreign policy for the Biden Administration. Today he had to celebrate the successful attack that ended in Kabul over the weekend with the most wanted terrorist, the leader of Al Qaeda Ayman Al Zawahiri, instead of talking about the hornet’s nest of relations with China.

A group of 25 legislators from both parties, with Mitch McConnell, Republican leader in the Senate, at the head, has shown from the Capitol its support for the visit of the president of the House of Representatives, the second in his position to do so since 1997, when Republican Newt Gingrich traveled to Taiwan. So the Chinese authorities, ready to welcome Hong Kong after 157 years of British rule, chose to swallow their anger.

To receive the congressional delegation, the message in Chinese and English “President Pelosi, welcome to Taiwan. Thanks. TW loves the US”, as broadcast live by the TVBS television network.

The Democratic politician, with a reputation for ungovernability and known for her toughness against the Chinese regime, will meet on Wednesday morning with the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, a meeting that Chinese leaders do not want. In the afternoon, the 82-year-old lawmaker plans to meet with a group of activists highly critical of China’s human rights record.

The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense has assured in a statement that it is aware of all military activities in the vicinity of the territory. They have also expressed that they have the “determination, capacity and confidence” to guarantee Taiwan’s national security. According to the official news agency CNA, the island has increased its alert level for combat until Thursday at noon, and the authorities do not rule out declaring an “emergency” in the coming days, “depending on the level of threat posed by the Chinese Army”. Taipei Taoyuan International Airport also increased its level of security on Tuesday after receiving a bomb threat, CNA reported.

A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry has emphasized that the current scenario of tension is due solely and exclusively to the actions of the United States: “The world can clearly appreciate that the United States is provoking in order to increase tension in the Strait of Taiwan”. Chinese President Xi Jinping himself warned his US counterpart Joe Biden in a phone call on Thursday that Pelosi’s trip would amount to “playing with fire.”

Asked whether China’s response will include diplomatic or military measures, the spokeswoman would say only that “the US side will definitely bear the responsibility and pay the price for damaging China’s sovereignty and security interests.” The Chinese Ministry of Defense already expressed last week, even before the conversation between the two leaders, that the People’s Liberation Army “will not sit idly by” if the visit takes place.

Diplomatic relations between China and the rest of the countries are based on the One China principle, an expression that implies that there is only one China and that this includes Taiwan, where the nationalist troops took refuge after being defeated in the civil war by China. the communist army in 1949. One of Beijing’s great concerns is that Pelosi’s trip will generate a domino effect that will open the door for other world leaders to visit Taiwan, which is understood as a show of support for the island’s independence. . China has already obtained, however, the “absolute solidarity” of Russia. In his daily press conference, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, defined as a “pure provocation” the possible visit of the president of the United States House of Representatives to Taiwan. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Pelosi’s visit a “clear provocation.” “China has the right to take appropriate measures to defend its sovereignty,” the minister said.

Taiwanese Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang said Tuesday that the island “warmly welcomes” all foreign guests and would “organize all necessary preparations.” Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture has announced that China has temporarily halted imports of more than 100 products from multiple Taiwanese food companies, a move seen as the first retaliation for the publicized visit.

The plane of the speaker of the US House of Representatives took off this morning from Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, the second stop on her itinerary, after visiting Singapore. Officially, it will also go to South Korea and Japan. The veteran lawmaker is known for her strong stance against the Chinese Communist Party: In 1991, Pelosi unfurled a banner in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to commemorate the victims of the massacre, two years after it took place. In addition, she has met with Chinese dissidents and the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader in exile, and has expressed her support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

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