US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to land in Taiwan on Tuesday evening in defiance of Chinese threats, a trip that would make her the highest-ranking American politician to visit the island in 25 years Pelosi is expected to arrive at 10:20 p.m. local time via private plane at Longshan Airport, according to the Liberty Times, one of several media outlets linked to Taiwan President Tsai Ingo-wen’s ruling party The South China Morning Post newspaper reported Tuesday that the US Air Force jet that brought Pelosi to Malaysia had departed the capital at 3:42 p.m., citing flight-tracking website Flightradar24. It wasn’t clear whether the US official was on board. In a regular briefing Tuesday afternoon, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said it couldn’t comment on the speculation around Pelosi’s trip. “Taiwan always welcomes international visitors coming to Taiwan to gain a better understanding of Taiwan and to display their support for Taiwan,” Joanne Ou, a spokeswoman for the ministry, told reporters China, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory, has vowed an unspecified military response to any Pelosi visit that risks sparking a crisis between the world’s biggest economies.
https://worldwideaboutblog.blogspot.com/2022/08/pelosi-to-visit-taiwan-as-china.html
President Xi Jinping on a call last week told President Joe Biden he would “resolutely safeguard China’s National Sovereignty And Territorial Integrity” and that “whoever plays with fire will get burned The US leader told Xi during the exchange that “Congress is an independent branch of government and that Speaker Pelosi makes her own decisions On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunking hit back at that idea, saying Congress was part of the US government and should abide by its foreign policy When the House speaker, being the third-highest ranking figure in the US government, flies on a US military plane to make a provocative visit to the Taiwan region, it is certainly not unofficial behavior,” she said at a briefing in Beijing, adding that any countermeasures from Beijing would be “justified” in response to such “unscrupulous behavior China would be in touch with its US ambassador “when appropriate,” she said. She left the door open for a possible in-person summit between Biden and Xi, however, saying that any such meeting would be decided “through diplomatic channels While there are few signs China is planning a full-scale invasion of Taiwan, Beijing has responded to past visits by foreign officials with large sorties into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone or across the median line that divides the strait. A large number of PLA warplanes flew close to the median line Monday morning, Taiwan’s TVBS reported, adding that Taiwanese military warships were also deployed in what it called a routine operation Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that the island’s military was prepared to send “appropriate armed forces according to the threat.” “The military is determined, confident and capable of ensuring national security,” it added.
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