TAIPEI: US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan late Tuesday, defying a string of increasingly stark warnings and threats from China that have sent tensions between the world’s two superpowers soaring.
Pelosi, second in line to the presidency, is the highest-profile elected US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years and Beijing has made clear that it regards her presence as a major provocation, setting the region on edge.
Live broadcasts showed the 82-year-old lawmaker, who flew on a US military aircraft, being greeted at Taipei’s Songshan Airport by foreign minister Joseph Wu.
“Our delegation’s visit to Taiwan honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant democracy,” she said in a statement upon her arrival, adding that her visit “in no way contradicts” US policy towards Taipei and Beijing.
Taiwan said the trip displayed “rock solid” support from Washington.
Reaction from Beijing was swift with US Ambassador Nicholas Burns summoned by the Foreign Ministry late Tuesday and warned that Washington “shall pay the price” for Pelosi’s visit.
“The move is extremely egregious in nature and the consequences are extremely serious,” China’s Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng was quoted as saying by the state news agency Xinhua. “China will not sit idly by.”
Pelosi is currently on a tour of Asia and while neither she nor her office confirmed the Taipei visit in advance, multiple US and Taiwanese media outlets reported it was on the cards — triggering days of mounting anger from Beijing.
China’s military said it was on “high alert” and would “launch a series of targeted military actions in response” to the visit.
It promptly announced plans for a series of military exercises in waters around the island to begin on Wednesday, including “long-range live ammunition shooting” in the Taiwan Strait.
“Those who play with fire will perish by it,” Beijing’s foreign ministry added.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said more than 21 Chinese military aircraft had flown on Tuesday into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone — an area wider than its territorial airspace that overlaps with part of China’s own air defence zone.
No need for ‘crisis’
China considers self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to one day seize the island, by force if necessary.
It tries to keep Taiwan isolated on the world stage and opposes countries having official exchanges with Taipei.
In a call with US President Joe Biden last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Washington against “playing with fire” on Taiwan.
While the Biden administration is understood to be opposed to Pelosi’s Taiwan stop, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said she was entitled to go where she pleased.
“There is no reason for this to erupt into conflict. There’s no change to our policy,” he told CNN shortly after Pelosi’s arrival.
The last speaker of the US House of Representatives to visit Taiwan was Newt Gingrich in 1997.
Kirby reiterated that US policy was unchanged toward Taiwan.
This means support for its self-ruling government, while diplomatically recognising Beijing over Taipei and opposing a formal independence declaration by Taiwan or a forceful takeover by China.
Russia’s foreign ministry called Pelosi’s visit a “clear provocation,” and said Beijing “has the right to take necessary measures to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity over the Taiwan issue.”
China has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has been accused of providing diplomatic cover for the Kremlin by blasting Western sanctions and arms sales to Kyiv.
All eyes on Taiwan
Pelosi left Kuala Lumpur Tuesday after meeting Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri and Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.
So many people were tracking the US military plane ferrying her on FlightRadar that the website said some users experienced outages.
The plane took a circuitous route that avoided the South China Sea — which Beijing claims — before heading up the east coast of the Philippines.
Press access around Pelosi has been tightly restricted and limited to a handful or short statements confirming meetings with officials.
The capital’s famous Taipei 101 skyscraper was illuminated with the words “Speaker Pelosi… Thank You” on Tuesday night an hour before Pelosi’s plane arrived.
‘Seek to punish Taiwan’
Taiwan’s 23 million people have long lived with the possibility of an invasion, but that threat has intensified under Xi, China’s most assertive ruler in a generation.
“Beijing shouldn’t get to decide who can visit Taiwan or how the US should interact with Taiwan,” Wang Ting-yu, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, told AFP ahead of the visit.
“I think China’s open intimidation is counter-effective.”
Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia programme at the US-based German Marshall Fund think tank, said the probability of Beijing choosing war was “low”.
“But the probability that… (China) will take a series of military, economic, and diplomatic actions to show strength & resolve is not insignificant,” she wrote on Twitter.
Taipei’s Council of Agriculture on Tuesday said China had suspended the import of some Taiwanese goods, including some fishery products, tea and honey. The council said China cited regulatory breaches.
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