US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi begins a tour of four Asian countries on Sunday, her cabinet confirmed, not mentioning Taiwan amid speculation she may visit the self-governing island claimed by China.
The six-member delegation led by the Democrat will visit Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, the statement said.
China sees visits by US officials to Taiwan as an encouraging sign for the pro-independence camp. Washington has no official diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but it has supported the territory militarily since 1979.
A visit by Pelosi would be a dramatic, though not unprecedented, display of US support for Taiwan. Republican Newt Gingrich was the last Speaker of the House to visit the island, in 1997.
“The trip will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region,” the statement from Pelosi’s office reads.
In the text, the congresswoman declares that the delegation will hold high-level meetings “to discuss how we can continue to advance our shared interests and values, including peace and security, economic growth and trade, the Covid-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, rights human rights and democratic governance”.
China considers Taiwan, an island of about 23 million inhabitants, as one of its provinces, which has not been reunited with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war (1949).
The Chinese regime opposes any initiative that gives international legitimacy to the Taiwanese authorities and any official contact between Taiwan and other countries.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had a tense telephone conversation, with Xi saying the United States should not “play with fire” when it comes to Taiwan.
In the same vein, the spokesman for the Chinese Air Force reaffirmed this Sunday that the defense of Chinese territory is the “sacred mission” of the Army.
“The Air Force has firm determination, complete confidence and sufficient capacity to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the spokesman told People’s Daily, the media outlet of the Communist Party of China.
In the telephone conversation, Biden assured that the American position on Taiwan has not changed and that his country opposes “unilateral efforts to modify the status or threaten peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”.
This week, the Taiwanese army carried out its biggest annual military exercises, which included simulations of intercepting Chinese attacks from the sea.
At the same time, the US aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and her flotilla departed Singapore for the South China Sea, according to the US Navy.
On Saturday, in response, China held a “live ammunition” military exercise in the Taiwan Strait.
