Pelosi and her fellow lawmakers will hold high-level meetings in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan to discuss a wide range of issues, including human rights, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, trade, and global security. the region.
Pelosi’s office reported the trip once it had already begun and after the plane carrying her made a stop in Hawaii to refuel. The Democratic leader is traveling accompanied by five congressmen, including the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Gregory Meeks.
As Speaker of the House, Pelosi is second in line to the Presidency after Vice President Kamala Harris and, when she travels abroad, she does so amid great security measures, for example using a military plane, explained this week the White House.
The media have been anticipating for weeks the possibility that Pelosi will travel to Taiwan, although her office has refused to confirm this for security reasons. Pelosi’s would be the first visit to Taiwan by a US House Speaker since 1997, when Republican Newt Gingrich traveled to the island.
Why does it generate tension with China?
The White House’s official exchanges with Taiwan violate the one-China principle, which is governed by the provisions of the three agreements between Beijing and Washington.
The tensions were the backdrop for a lengthy phone call between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, in which Xi warned the United States not to “play with fire” on the issue of Taiwan, although neither side confirmed whether Pelosi’s plans were discussed. Preparations for the call preceded reports of the possible trip.
“We are fully prepared. If the US goes its own way, China will certainly take strong and resolute action to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the US must bear full responsibility for any consequences,” Zhao said.
For his part, Tan Kefei, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said Tuesday if Pelosi visits Taiwan, it will undoubtedly cause extremely serious damage to the relationship between the two militaries and further intensify tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Tan urged the US side to take practical steps to honor its commitment not to support “Taiwan independence” and not to host Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, adding that the Chinese military will never stand idly by if it takes carry out said plan.
China’s ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan’s self-ruled democracy as its own territory, even though it has never ruled it, and has not ruled out using force to “reunify” the island with mainland China.
China strongly opposes any move that appears to give Taiwan a sense of international legitimacy. And in the eyes of Beijing, high-profile visits abroad by Taiwanese officials, or visits by foreign officials to Taiwan, would do just that.
Source: Ambito
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