Until last week, the position of the Asian giant was different: if the president of the US Chamber of Deputies, currently visiting Asia, went to the island, China said it would shoot down her plane. At home Nancy Pelosi is the third political authority under Vice President Kamala Harris (also Senate President) and President Joe Biden.
The spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian, avoided specifying on Monday what would be the retaliation that his country would take in the event that the president of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosivisit taiwan.
The island thinks of itself as independent, but the Communist Party of China considers it part of its territory.
“We will wait and see,” settled Lijian.
But last week the position was different: if they left for the island, China said it would shoot down the plane used by Pelosi.
Trip would seriously violate the “one China principle”
Zhao, quoted in local media, explained that Pelosi’s status as “third highest ranking person in the United States Government” (under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, concurrently Senate President) would make her trip to Taiwan “very sensitive.”
If the trip is consummated, no matter “how or when”, it would be “seriously violating the ‘one China principle'”Zhao said, adding that the visit would “undermine relations between China and the United States” and have “a negative political impact.”
As he warned in recent interventions, the spokesman insisted that China will take “firm measures” to “defend its sovereignty and integrity.”
Recently, since the US media advanced the possibility of Pelosi’s trip, both military and civilian Chinese representatives have warned of possible consequences of the US official’s trip.
Last week, the spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Defense, Tan Kefei, declared that the Chinese Army “will not sit idly by” if the visit takes place and asked that the North American country respect “its promise that it will not support independence of Taiwan”.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry also declared that the North American nation will have to “assume all the consequences that arise” from the trip.
During their telephone conversation last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked his American counterpart “not to play with fire.”
Nancy Pelosi is currently in Asia on an official visit.
So far he has announced that he will visit countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia or Japanwithout having declared that he is going to visit Taiwan, an extreme not confirmed by the island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This is not the first time that Pelosi has planned a trip to Taiwan: his visit to the island in April had to be canceled after testing positive for coronavirus.
Nancy Pelosi, Taiwan and China: what’s the problem?
China claims sovereignty over the island and considers Taiwan a rebel province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949, after losing the civil war against the communists..
Taiwan, with whom the United States does not maintain official relations, is one of the main reasons for the conflict between the two powers.
Not only because Washington is Taiwan’s main arms supplier, but also because, if there were to be a war, it would also be its greatest military ally.
Tensions have risen across the Taiwan Strait in the past year.
In these months the number of Chinese aircraft incursions into Taiwan’s self-defined aerial identification zone (ADIZ) grew.
In addition to this, the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen, admitted that the United States has a military presence on the island, something that Beijing described as “provocation.”
The passage of US destroyers through the Taiwan Strait in recent months has also been repeatedly condemned by Beijing.
Taiwan has also received several visits from US congressional delegations in recent months.