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After the Financial Times reported that US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi would visit Taiwan next month, China’s leadership warned on Tuesday that it would take “forceful actions.”
According to persons acquainted with the situation, Pelosi and her group will also visit Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore, as well as spend time in Hawaii at the headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific Command.
The Foreign Ministry of Taiwan stated that it has “not received relevant information” on any visit.
When asked about the claim, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill responded, “We do not confirm or deny international travel in advance owing to longstanding security regulations.”
The Democratic leader’s trip to Taiwan had been pushed back from April when she tested positive for COVID-19. At the time, China stated that such a visit would have a negative impact on Sino-American relations.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said any visit by Pelosi would “seriously damage China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“If the US side persists in this route, China will undoubtedly take resolute and robust measures to resolutely defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he warned. “The United States must bear full responsibility for all consequences.”
When asked about China’s reaction, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price stated: “I believe the foreign ministry was commenting on a hypothetical. That is something I will be hesitant to undertake here “.
China, which views the democratically ruled island to be its own territory, is putting increasing pressure on Taiwan. The issue is a persistent source of friction between Beijing and Washington.
Taiwan, on the other hand, has been encouraged by the administration of US President Joe Biden, which has repeatedly expressed its “rock-solid” commitment to the island.
Pelosi, a long-time opponent of China, held an online meeting with Taiwanese Vice President William Lai in January, as he returned from a trip to the United States and Honduras.
According to three people familiar with the incident, the White House was concerned about Pelosi’s travel.
The Democratic administration in the United States was divided over whether Pelosi should visit Taiwan, according to two individuals published by the Financial Times.
Some officials believed it would have been simpler to explain a visit in April because that was immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, according to the report.
A representative for the US National Security Council declined to comment on “travel that the Speaker’s office has not announced,” but underlined that the US remains committed to its One China policy.
Separately, the US Navy’s 7th Fleet announced that the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Benfold transited the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday “in conformity with international law.”
“The ship transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” it stated in a statement.
The US has been making such journeys into the stretch of ocean separating Taiwan and China around once a month. This has enraged Beijing, which sees them as a show of support for the island.
China dispatched fighters across the Taiwan Strait’s median line this month, which Taiwan termed as a provocation. Senator Rick Scott, a Republican member of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, was in Taiwan at the time of the event.
On Monday, China requested that the United States immediately terminate a possible supply of military technical support to Taiwan worth an estimated $108 million.
