TAIPEI, Taiwan – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., departed Taiwan Wednesday after meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and other lawmakers, defying Beijing’s threats of retaliation over the visit and raising fears of a military crisis in the Taiwan Strait.
During a ceremony at the presidential office, Pelosi accepted an award from the president on behalf of Congress and declared the United States’ solidarity with Taiwan “crucial.” There is “a struggle between autocracy and democracy in the world” right now, Pelosi said in a subsequent news conference, adding that one of the purposes of the trip is “to show the world the success of the people of Taiwan, the courage to change their own country, to become more democratic.”
China’s claims over Taiwan form a core part of the ideology of the ruling Communist Party, and the White House has warned that China is preparing for possible aggressive actions in response to Pelosi’s visit beyond this week. China has planned large-scale military exercises Thursday through Sunday around the island, which have been condemned by Taiwanese defense officials as amounting to “a sea and air blockade.”
A U.S. Air Force plane carrying Pelosi and five other Democratic lawmakers took off from Taipei’s Songshan Airport on Wednesday just after 6 p.m. local time – bringing to an end a symbolic, high-level visit that has sparked furious reactions from China.
In total, the U.S. delegation spent less than 24 hours in Taiwan, landing in Taipei just before 11 p.m. local time Tuesday amid a furious backlash from China, which considers the self-governing island its own and views foreign diplomatic visits as legitimizing the movement for Taiwan’s independence.
The visit was a test of Taiwan’s diplomatic mettle and an opportunity to signal to senior politicians around the world that they can show support for Taiwan’s democracy in person – despite vocal opposition from Beijing. That the visit happened – and went off without trouble – is a success for Taiwan.
But Pelosi’s trip means Taiwan is bracing for more economic and military retaliation from Beijing. China’s army is set to conduct drills around Taiwan between Thursday and Sunday. And Chinese agencies separately announced the suspension of sand exports to Taiwan and citrus fruit and fish imports from the island starting Wednesday, Reuters reported.
“China has positioned itself to take further steps, and we expect that they will continue to react over a longer-term horizon,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday afternoon.
In a reflection of the complex dynamics surrounding Pelosi’s visit, many Taiwanese expressed support for it, but small-scale protests were also held on the island by groups that included supporters of unification with China.
Given the costs and the risks of an overreaction from Beijing, some – including White House officials – had argued that the speaker shouldn’t go to Taiwan. But Pelosi defended her choice at a news conference in Taipei on Wednesday, saying her visit “opens the door” to better economic exchanges between Taiwan and the United States.
Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan drew fury from China on Wednesday, with government officials and state media outlets churning out harsh statements and threats of “long-term and firm” retaliatory measures.
“This is very dangerous and stupid,” China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said of Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan in a statement early Wednesday.
Pelosi’s visit dominated social media. By Wednesday afternoon, 19 of the top 50 trending topics on the microblog Weibo were about Taiwan, with a hashtag about Russia voicing support for China over the visit receiving 320 million views.
Earlier, so many users had taken to the site to discuss the trip that the platform crashed Tuesday night before Pelosi’s arrival.
The People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, published a front-page editorial on Wednesday criticizing Washington for not stopping Pelosi’s trip, which Beijing sees as a violation of the one-China policy, under which the United States acknowledges but does not recognize China’s claim over Taiwan.
“The U.S. government had the responsibility to prevent her trip. Yet they say one thing and do another. They have no integrity at all,” it said. A full page was also dedicated to official statements condemning Pelosi’s visit.
White House officials were said to have sought to convince Pelosi not to travel to Taiwan but stressed that it was her decision and defended her right to go. On Tuesday, Kirby said her visit was “totally consistent” with the United States’ long-standing policy toward China and Taiwan, and that “nothing has changed about our adherence to the one-China policy.”
Despite the tough talk from Chinese officials, China has limited its response to intensified military drills around Taiwan, as well as banning some imports of Taiwanese fish and fruit and barring Chinese exports of sand to Taiwan.
“After all, what we want is reunification, not a war with the United States,” current affairs commentator Ming Jinwei, formerly a senior editor at the state-run Xinhua News Agency, wrote in his blog.
Annabelle Timsit contributed to this report.
Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, Hua Chunying holds a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, on August 2, 2022.
Shortly after meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and other lawmakers Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan’s National Human Rights Museum.
The museum, which opened in 2018, carries a collection of documents, oral histories and archives related to the White Terror – a nearly four-decade period of martial law in which the then-Nationalist party (Kuomintang) government repressed those it perceived to be against its rule through a campaign of violence, intimidation and imprisonment.
During their visit, the U.S. delegation also “heard from civil society leaders on human rights,” Pelosi said on Twitter, and “left inspired by their courage.”
This February marked the 75th anniversary of the 2-28 incident – a 1947 massacre in which the Kuomintang killed up to 28,000 Taiwanese civilians following an attempted uprising.
Some 38 years of martial law and political repression followed, during which time discussion of the massacre was silenced.
The museum collections serve as a “reminder of the paths taken to reach the free and democratic society of Taiwan today,” its website notes. The aim of establishing the museum is “to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and deepen the concepts of democracy and human rights in every individual mind.”
(c) 2022, The Washington Post · Lily Kuo, Erin Cunningham, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Rachel Pannett, Annabelle Timsit
Get ready! The live movies is almost over.
Movies are assur.
And if you’re part of it which you don’t even know are you assur to yourself?
it’s not over. China is very deliberate in its actions. Covid came out of nowhere – remember?
Covid was proven to be a hoax virus, remember?
No. Please remind me.
When asked by Chinese media why he did not stop the House Speaker from visiting Taiwan, which China sees as a breach of the one-China policy, under which the US acknowledges but does not recognize China’s claim over Taiwan, one high-ranking Democratic lawmaker said, “The reason I didn’t stop her is because, while I certainly acknowledge that there is an individual by the name of Pelosi, I don’t really recognize who she is. Can you point her out to me? Is that her over there in the 2cnd row?”