The plane carrying the Speaker of the US House of Representatives arrived in South Korea on Wednesday to continue her Asian tour, after her lightning visit to Taiwan that sparked strong criticism from Beijing and retaliation against the island.
(Also read: Nancy Pelosi affirms that she arrived in Taiwan in ‘peace for the region’)
The US forces plane in which Pelosi is traveling landed today at the Osan air base (south of Seoul) at 9:26 p.m. local time (12:26 GMT) from Taipei, where the president of The House of Representatives met this Wednesday with the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen.
(Also: Why is the world tensely awaiting China’s response to Pelosi’s challenge?)
Our delegation had the distinct privilege of meeting with the President of Taiwan @Iingwen today.
We discussed how America & Taiwan can deepen our economic ties, further strengthen our security partnership & defend our shared democratic values. pic.twitter.com/VL509UYK4x
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) August 3, 2022
The American politician is scheduled to meet this Thursday in Seoul with her South Korean counterpart, Kim Jin-pyo, before traveling to Japan that same day, which will be the last stop on her Asian tour.
Pelosi, who spent less than 24 hours in Taiwan, visited Parliament in Taipei this morning and later met with the president of the island, Tsai Ing-wen, who presented him with an award for his “support” of the territory.
After the meeting with Tsai, Pelosi declared that Taiwan, which she described as a “model for the region”, is a “contrast” with China, while praising the “success of the Taiwanese people and their courage to become a country more democratic”.
(Read on: When and how China lost Taiwan (and what is the status of the ‘rogue island’))
In the afternoon, the official met in the Taiwanese capital with human rights activists, including Wuer Kaixi, one of the leaders of the student movement that led the protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, repressed by China in 1989.
At the event, which took place in Taipei’s Jingmei Park, Pelosi also spoke with Lam Wing-kee, the bookseller arrested and interrogated in China for selling books banned by Beijing in his Hong Kong bookstore, and with activist Lee Ming-kee. che, imprisoned for “subversion” in China between 2017 and 2022.
(Also read: China responds to Pelosi’s visit: “There will be forceful measures”)
In the last hours, Beijing has responded to the trip, which it has described as “deplorable betrayal” and “farce”, with a military deployment in the Taiwan Strait and with sanctions on imports from the island.
Taiwan, with whom the US does not maintain official relations, is one of the main sources of conflict between China and the US, mainly because Washington is the main supplier of weapons to the island and would be its greatest military ally. in case of war conflict with the Asian giant.
(Of interest: Chinese Embassy in Colombia attacks Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan)
China insists on “reunifying” the People’s Republic with the island, which has been governed autonomously since the Kuomintang (KMT) nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communists and continued with the regime of the Republic of China, culminating in the transition to democracy in the 1990s.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from Efe
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