Beijing issues threat over Pelosi’s itinerary
Warning from Chinese air force raises stakes as US House speaker refuses to rule out Taiwan visit
BEIJING raised the stakes over Nancy Pelosi’s proposed trip to Taiwan yesterday with a Chinese air force spokesman warning it would “resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity”. The thinly veiled threat came as Ms Pelosi, the speaker of the United States House of Representatives and one of the most senior Democrats in Washington, refused to confirm her itinerary in a statement issued after her six-strong Congressional delegation made its first stop in Hawaii.
It came after Hu Xijin, an influential Chinese commentator, on Friday warned that the air force was ready to “forcibly dispel” Ms Pelosi’s plane and any accompanying US fighter jets – and if necessary shoot them down.
Yesterday Ms Pelosi, who is leading a delegation on a tour of western Pacific US allies, issued a carefully worded statement, in which she said her party would include visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.
But she refused to rule out stopping in Taiwan, a self-governing island of 23 million people over which Beijing claims sovereignty. Should she press ahead with the trip, as predicted by The Washington Post on Friday, she would be the most senior US politician to visit Taiwan since Newt Gingrich in 1997.
Joe Biden has voiced concern about the trip, saying that the US military did not think “it was a good idea right now”.
It is understood the US president was left in little doubt about the sensitivity of Taiwan during his two-and-a-halfhour call with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Thursday. There have been reports that his administration had been working behind the scenes to dissuade her from a stop in Taiwan.
On Friday Donald Trump, Mr Biden’s Republican predecessor, weighed in on his social media platform, Truth Social. “The China mess is the last thing she should be involved in — She will only make it worse,” he wrote. “Everything she touches, turns to Chaos, Disruption, and ‘Crap’.”
However, Ms Pelosi has backing from some Republicans including Steve Chabot, the chair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, who urged the US to show solidarity with Taiwan and not “cower” to Beijing.
The row over the Pelosi trip comes against a backdrop of growing tension between Beijing and Washington over Taiwan.
William Burns, the director of the CIA, said last month he believed a Chinese attempt to capture the island by force is only a matter of time.
High-profile sabre rattling is expected, possibly a military show of force, if she goes ahead with the trip and meets Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president.
In 2020, 19 Chinese air force jets crossed the sensitive mid-line of the Taiwan Strait when then-us health chief Alex Azar visited the island in 2020.
A more aggressive escalation would see the Chinese fire missiles into the Taiwan Strait.
This is “my prediction for a worstcase scenario”, said a former US security official.
Beijing is likely wary of doing anything that would invite the US to step up its response as well, he said.