The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, stated on Wednesday that his delegation arrived in Taiwan in the spirit of “peace for the region”, after his visit angered Beijing and sparked a diplomatic firestorm.
“We come to Taiwan in friendship, we come in peace for the region,” he declared during a meeting with Tsai Chi-chang, vice president of Taiwan’s Parliament.
(Also read: Pelosi challenges China with her visit to Taiwan, and tensions with the US escalate)
The president of the House of Representatives began the public agenda of her visit to Taiwan in the island’s House of Representatives, where she met with the vice president of the institution, Tsai Chi-chang, official media on the island reported.
Pelosi, who according to the official CNA agency arrived at the headquarters of the Taiwanese organization at 8:47 local time (00:47 GMT), plans to hold a meeting with members of the four political parties represented in the Legislative, including the ruling Progressive Party. Democratic Party (PPD) and the opposition Kuomintang.
The US policy landed in Taipei on Tuesday night in an unannounced trip that has outraged the Chinese government, which is responding with a military deployment in the Taiwan Strait and trade sanctions on the island.
(You may be interested in: China summons the United States ambassador for Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan)
The reason that Pelosi has been received by a lower-ranking representative than her is that the president of the Taiwanese House, You Si-kun, is in isolation after having tested positive for covid-19.
The politician said in a Facebook post that the official’s visit shows the United States’ “strong commitment” to Taiwan.
According to local media and in the absence of an official agenda, Nancy Pelosi will also meet this Wednesday with the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, and could hold a meeting with human rights activists in Jingmei Park in the Taiwanese capital.
It is expected that after a stay of a few hours, the president of the US Legislature and second in line to succession to the White House will resume her tour of Asia, which will take her to South Korea and Japan after the stops made on Monday and Tuesday in Singapore and Malaysia.
(Also: Who is Nancy Pelosi, the US politician challenging China?)
This is the first visit by a US House Speaker to Taiwan since 1997, when Republican Newt Gingrich visited the island. It is also the highest-level visit by a US representative since that date, although several congressional delegations have passed through in recent months.
Pelosi’s presence in Taiwan has further strained the relationship between the US and China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan and considers the trip a provocation with which the North American country violates the existing status quo on this territory, one of the main reasons for bilateral conflict.
Washington is the main supplier of weapons to the island and would be its greatest military ally in the event of a war with the Asian giant, which has not given up reunifying Taiwan, considering it a rebellious province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949, after lose the civil war against the communists.
*With information from AFP and EFE
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