The president of the US House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, explained this Tuesday in an opinion column that her visit to Taiwan serves to “support” the island’s democracy in the face of the “threats” it suffers from from Peking.
Source: EFE
“By traveling to Taiwan, we honor our commitment to democracy and reaffirm that the freedoms of Taiwan and all democracies must be respected,” he said in an article published by The Washington Post after arriving on the island.
Pelosi landed at 10:43 p.m. local time (2:43 p.m. GMT) at Taipei’s Songshan airport, where she began a visit against which Beijing had announced retaliation.
In her opinion column, the leader of the Lower House defended that the United States must “support Taiwan”, which she called a “vibrant and robust democracy” that “is under threat”.
He criticized that in recent years “Beijing has dramatically intensified tension with Taiwan”, with the increase in air operations in the area, cyber attacks against Taiwanese agencies and intimidation against countries that cooperate with the island.
“In the face of aggression from the Chinese Communist Party, the visit by our congressional delegation should be seen as an unequivocal statement that the United States stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, while defending its freedom,” he said.
However, Pelosi reiterated that her trip “in no way contradicts” the position of the United States on Taiwan, which since 1979 supports the “one China” policy and opposes the island’s independence.
He stressed that “the solidarity of the United States with Taiwan is more important today than ever”, not only for the 23 million inhabitants of the island, but also for “the other millions of oppressed” in China.
In that sense, he cited the “brutal repression” in Hong Kong, the “campaign to erase the identity” of the Tibetan people and the “genocide” against Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
This is the first visit by a US House Speaker to Taiwan since 1997, when Republican Newt Gingrich visited the island.
Neither Pelosi nor the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had confirmed whether the official’s tour of Asia would include a visit to Taiwan, a possibility advanced by US and Taiwanese media.
This Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry assured that it is “difficult to imagine a more reckless and provocative action” by the United States than this visit, about which the Chinese Army recently warned that it would not “stand idly by”.
Shortly before Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan, Chinese state media reported the crossing of the Taiwan Strait by Chinese SU-35 military aircraft, without further details being provided for the time being.
China claims sovereignty over the island and has considered Taiwan a rebellious province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communists.
