Agencies ( 3 August 2022) – China has condemned the visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan as “extremely dangerous”, warning that the trip was a threat to stability in the region.
Pelosi arrived in Taiwan late on Tuesday on a trip. She said her visit demonstrated the United States’s solidarity with the self-governed island, which China claims as its own.
Washington does not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but is bound by US law to provide the island with the means to defend itself. The US politician explained her reasons for visiting Taiwan in an editorial published in the Washington Post minutes after she arrived on the island.
“We cannot stand by as the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party) proceeds to threaten Taiwan – and democracy itself,” she wrote in the opinion piece.
Pelosi – the highest-ranking US official to travel to Taiwan in 25 years – arrived at Songshan Airport in downtown Taipei on a flight from Malaysia to begin a visit that risks pushing US-Chinese relations to a new low.
Her delegation was greeted by Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, and Sandra Oudkirk, the top US representative in Taiwan.
‘Playing with fire’
China immediately condemned Pelosi’s visit, with the foreign ministry saying it seriously damages peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
The visit “has a severe impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and seriously infringes upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, it said in a statement.