US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi left Taiwan on Wednesday after
a visit that heightened tensions with China. Pelosi said, she and other members
of Congress in her delegation showed they will not abandon their commitment to
the self-governing island.
Pelosi, the first US speaker to visit the island in more
than 25 years, courted Beijing’s wrath with the visit and set off more than a
week of debate over whether it was a good idea after news of it leaked. In
Taipei she remained calm but defiant.
“Today the world faces a choice between democracy and
autocracy,” she said in a short speech during a meeting with Taiwanese
President Tsai Ing-wen. “America’s determination to preserve democracy, here in
Taiwan and around the world remains ironclad.”
Pelosi arrived at a military base in South Korea on
Wednesday evening ahead of meetings with political leaders in Seoul, after
which she will visit Japan.
Both countries are US alliance partners, together hosting
about 80,000 American personnel as a bulwark against North Korea’s nuclear
ambitions and China’s increased assertiveness in the South China and East China
seas.
“Such an act equals
to sealing off Taiwan by air and sea, such an act covers our country’s
territory and territorial waters, and severely violates our country’s
territorial sovereignty,” Capt. Jian-chang Yu said at a briefing by the
National Defense Ministry.
The Chinese military exercises, including live fire, are to
start Thursday and be the largest aimed at Taiwan since 1995, when China fired
missiles in a large-scale exercise to show its displeasure at a visit by
then-Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui to the United States.
Taiwanese President Tsai responded firmly Wednesday to
Beijing’s military intimidation.
“Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan
will not back down,” Tsai said at her meeting with Pelosi. “We will firmly uphold
our nation’s sovereignty and continue to hold the line of defense for
democracy.”
In Washington, John Kirby, spokesperson for the National
Security Council, said Wednesday that the United States was anticipating more
military drills and other actions from China in coming days as the country’s
armed forces “flex their muscles.”
Still, “we don’t believe we’re at the brink now, and there’s
certainly no reason for anybody to be talking about being at the brink going
forward,” Kirby said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
China’s official Xinhua News Agency announced the military
actions Tuesday night, along with a map outlining six different areas around
Taiwan. Arthur Zhin-Sheng Wang, a defense studies expert at Taiwan’s Central
Police University, said three of the areas infringe on Taiwanese waters,
meaning they are within 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) of shore.
Pelosi’s trip has heightened US-China tensions more than
visits by other members of Congress because of her high-level position as
leader of the House of Representatives. She is the first speaker of the House
to visit Taiwan in 25 years, since Newt Gingrich in 1997. However, other
members of Congress have visited Taiwan in the past year.
Tsai, thanking Pelosi for her decades of support for Taiwan,
presented the speaker with a civilian honor, the Order of the Propitious
Clouds.
Shortly after Pelosi landed Tuesday night, China announced
live-fire drills that reportedly started that night, as well as the four-day
exercises starting Thursday.
The People’s Liberation Army Air Force also flew a
contingent of 21 war planes Tuesday night, including fighter jets, toward
Taiwan. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng also summoned the US Ambassador
in Beijing, Nicholas Burns, to convey the country’s protests the same night.
Pelosi addressed Beijing’s threats Wednesday morning, saying
she hopes it’s clear that while China has prevented Taiwan from attending
certain international meetings, “that they understand they will not stand in
the way of people coming to Taiwan as a show of friendship and of support.”
She noted that support for Taiwan is bipartisan in Congress
and praised the island’s democracy. She stopped short of saying that the US
would defend Taiwan militarily, emphasizing that Congress is “committed to the
security of Taiwan, in order to have Taiwan be able to most effectively defend
themselves.”
Her focus has always been the same, she said, going back to
her 1991 visit to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, when she and other lawmakers
unfurled a small banner supporting democracy two years after a bloody military
crackdown on protesters at the square. That visit was also about human rights
and what she called dangerous technology transfers to “rogue countries.”
Pelosi visited a human rights museum in Taipei that details
the history of the island’s martial law era and met with some of Taiwan’s most
prominent rights activists, including an exiled former Hong Kong bookseller who
was detained by Chinese authorities, Lam Wing-kee.
Pelosi, who is leading the trip with five other members of
Congress, also met with representatives from Taiwan’s legislature.
“Madam Speaker’s visit to Taiwan with the delegation,
without fear, is the strongest defense of upholding human rights and
consolidation of the values of democracy and freedom,” Tsai Chi-chang, vice
president of Taiwan’s legislature, said in welcome.
The administration of US President Joe Biden has sought to
tone down the volume on the visit, insisting there’s no change in America’s
longstanding “one-China policy,” which recognizes Beijing but allows informal
relations and defense ties with Taipei.
Pelosi said her delegation has “heft,” including Gregory
Meeks, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
from the House Intelligence Committee. Reps. Andy Kim and Mark Takano are also
in the delegation.
She also mentioned Rep. Suzan DelBene, whom Pelosi said was
instrumental in the passage of a US$280 billion bill aimed at boosting American
manufacturing and research in semiconductor chips — an industry that Taiwan
dominates and is vital for modern electronic
