Pelosi sets out to Asia amid China tensions
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to appear in Singapore on Monday as part of a closely watched tour of Asia that has stoked fears, including at the highest levels of the U.S. government, of dangerously heightened tensions with China over the possibility that she would make a stop in Taiwan.
Pelosi has not confirmed whether she will visit Taiwan, a self-governing democracy of 23 million people that China claims as its own territory. But she had proposed a trip to the island this year, which was postponed because she contracted the coronavirus, and when asked recently about her travel plans, she said that it was “important for us to show support for Taiwan.”
On Sunday, Pelosi revealed some more details about her itinerary. Her office said in a statement that her trip, on which she would be accompanied by a small congressional delegation, would include visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan to “focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region.” A posting on the website of the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore said that Pelosi would be attending a cocktail reception hosted by the group Monday afternoon.
The possibility of a trip to Taiwan by Pelosi — who would be the highest-ranking American official to go there since 1997, when a previous House speaker, Newt Gingrich, visited — comes at a particularly delicate time in U.S.-China relations. The Biden administration has grown increasingly worried that China’s leader, Xi Jinping, might try to move, perhaps with force, against Taiwan within the next year and a half.
Xi, China’s most authoritarian leader in decades, has pledged to pursue reunification with Taiwan, though he has not specified a timeline. Some analysts fear that he may feel pressure to show a tough stance — possibly including military action — against any perceived challenges to that pledge before an important Chinese Communist Party Congress this fall, when he is expected to claim a third term as leader.
President Joe Biden himself has seemingly alluded to the risk of a clash with China if Pelosi visits. Asked recently by reporters about the proposed trip, he said that “the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now.” The president has also been shoring up U.S. relations with Asian allies as a potential counterweight to China’s rise.
China has not specified how it would react if Pelosi’s visit went ahead. During a two-hour phone call between Xi and Biden on Thursday, their first direct conversation in four months, Xi warned Biden against “playing with fire” on the Taiwan issue, according to a Chinese government statement that did not explicitly mention the House speaker.