If US Congress Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan, it will have serious consequences, China
News of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's possible visit to Taiwan has angered China,
China has warned that there will be "serious consequences" if Speaker Nancy Pelosi goes ahead with plans to visit Taiwan. In the American system of government, second only to the office of the presidency, is the office of the vice president and then the speaker. Nancy Pelosi will be the most senior US politician to visit the island since 1997.
Any U.S. intervention in Taiwan infuriates China because China claims an independent Taiwan as its own as a separate province. China has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve this.
Even the Biden administration has reportedly tried to prevent the leader of the Democratic Party elected from California from going to Taiwan.
'The military doesn't think it's a good idea.' But his White House has called the Chinese statement against any such trip "clearly futile and unnecessary.'' Last week, President Joe Biden told reporters.
The State Department says Nancy Pelosi has not announced a trip and there has been no change in the US approach to Taiwan.
Although the US maintains its Taiwan policy of what it calls 'strong, unofficial relations' with Taiwan, it has formal diplomatic relations with China but not with Taiwan.
Nancy Pelosi's visit, if indeed it were to happen, comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing and ahead of an expected phone call between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
What is the reason of China for opposing the visit ?
China views Taiwan as its territory, and has repeatedly stated that it will annex it by force if necessary.
Chinese officials have expressed anger at what they see as increased diplomatic activity between Taipei (Taiwan's capital) and Washington (the US capital). This includes by six US lawmakers in April, a surprise visit to the island
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian warned that his country would take "strong and inflexible measures" if Nancy Pelosi were to carry out her visit. He added that 'and the United States will be responsible for all these serious consequences.'
A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Defense says that a military response may also be given.
"If the US side insists on advancing, the Chinese military will never sit idly by and resist any external interference and separatist efforts to 'liberate Taiwan,'" Chinese military spokesman Col. Tan Keefei told China Daily. will take strict measures to thwart it.'
Why would Pelosi want to go to Taiwan?
There is a common bipartisan support for relations with Taiwan in the American public and in the US Congress, and during a 35-year congressional career, Speaker Pelosi has been an outspoken critic of China.
Speaker Pelosi has condemned China's human rights record and met with pro-democracy advocates in Taiwan. He also visited Tiananmen Square in Beijing to commemorate the victims of the 1989 massacre.
Speaker Pelosi originally planned to visit Taiwan in April, but that was postponed after she tested positive for Covid-19.
He declined to discuss details of the trip, but said last week that it was "important for us to show support for Taiwan."
If this visit happens, how will the tension deepen?
The Chinese Communist Party is poised to re-elect Mr Xi for an extraordinary third term as president later this year.
President Biden, who last spoke to President Xi Jinping by telephone in March, has said he will speak on the phone again in the next few days on a range of topics, including other ''issues of tension'' and Taiwan.
Threats of retaliation against Nancy Pelosi's visit have raised concerns about China's possible response.
When then-US Health Secretary Alex Azar visited Taiwan in 2020, Chinese Air Force jets crossed the line in the center of the Taiwan Strait, within range of Taipei's missiles. The Taiwan Strait is a narrow waterway between the island of Taiwan and its larger neighbor China.
Last week, a former editor of China's state-run Global Times newspaper suggested there could be a 'shocking military response' to Nancy Pelosi.
Hu Jintao wrote, ''If Pelosi visits Taiwan, a (People's Liberation Army) military plane will accompany Pelosi's plane to enter the island and make a historic crossing of the island by military aircraft from the mainland for the first time.''
So far, Washington's policy of 'strategic ambiguity' means that the US is deliberately unclear about whether it will defend Taiwan in the event of a large-scale attack on the island.
In this background, the media reported on Wednesday, citing Chinese officials, that China's People's Liberation Army has claimed that for the first time, its drones have returned to the island of Taiwan without being detected by Taiwanese security.