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Chinese leaders have reaffirmed that a trip by the speaker of the US House of Representatives will provoke a strong reaction from Beijing. In addition, they stressed the need for the country to honor “its promise not to support the independence” of Taipei and the Foreign Ministry spokesman warned of “firm responses” if China’s “basic positions” are challenged. However, there is no official certainty of an approach by Pelosi to the disputed territory.
This Wednesday, July 27, members of the Chinese government stressed that a possible trip by US Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan would cause an increase in tensions between the two powers. Beijing has promised “firm reactions” if Washington’s top rank establishes diplomatic relations with the island territory.
“If the United States insists and challenges China’s basic positions, we will respond firmly,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. The diplomatic portfolio also stressed that the White House, headed by Joe Biden, must “assume all the consequences that arise.”
These messages by the person in charge of Foreign Affairs of Beijing are renewed after Zhao himself expressed last Tuesday, July 19, that the Asian giant would take “strong measures” and settled the opposition to “any form of official exchange” between Taipei and the Americans.
The spokesman had warned that Pelosi’s visit would “seriously violate the ‘one China’ principle” and that it would give “the wrong signals to separatists.”
For his part, the Defense Ministry spokesman said Tuesday night that the Army “will not sit idly by” and urged the United States to honor “its promise that it will not support Taiwan’s independence.”
It will be “a further escalation of tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” said Tan Kefei, a Chinese defense spokesman.
However, for now, the possibility of Pelosi’s trip next August, which set off alarms in China, was considered by US media and not by an official announcement.
Neither the team of the leader of the House of Representatives nor the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs have ratified the visit. The latter’s spokesperson, Joanne Ou, emphasized that so far they have not “received any information” about it.
Beijing’s fears are that this is not the first time that Pelosi has considered going to Taiwan. Last April he was going to move to the island, but had to cancel after testing positive for Covid-19.
If materialized, a speaker of the US House of Representatives would make an excursion to Taiwan again since Republican Newt Gingrich did it in 1997.
Although there are no official relations between the two nations, Taipei is one of the most important issues in the tensions between Beijing and Washington, since the latter is its main military ally in the event of a conflict and its largest supplier of weapons.
So far this year, discrepancies have increased around the island country. On the one hand, the increase in Chinese aircraft raids; on the other, the passage of US destroyers in the strait and the visit of congressmen in recent months.
In addition, the announcement by President Tsai Ing-Wen, admitting that there is a US military presence on the island, was taken as “a provocation” by Beijing.
Will Xi Jinping and Joe Biden meet?
In the midst of these warnings and versions about a trip to Taiwan and its retaliation, the leaders of the world’s two largest economies would meet by videoconference this week, as indicated by the United States, a version that was not ratified by China.
In addition to the resentments for the island country, on the table there would be issues concerning the war in Ukraine and the competition between the two in the economic field, representatives of the North American Administration advanced.
This would be the first official contact between the two leaders since the NATO summit in Madrid, where Beijing was described as “a challenge” to the Transatlantic Alliance.
On that occasion, the organization pointed out that China maintains a “strategic partnership” with Russia that undermines the rules of international order.
In the current July, Liu He -Chinese trade negotiator leader and one of the deputy prime ministers- and Janet Yellen -Treasury Secretary- established “constructive” contacts, where they spoke about the global macroeconomic situation.
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