Sen. Warren: Pelosi 'May Have Reasons' to Be in Taiwan, ‘China Should Not Overreact’
(CNS News) – Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “may have reasons” to be in Taiwan, when asked if the speaker should go to the island.
At the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 2, CNS News asked Warren, “Should Speaker Pelosi go to Taiwan?”
“People from Congress have gone to Taiwan before,” replied Warren. “And she may have reasons to be there.”
“If the People’s Republic of China (PRC) attacks her, how should the United States respond?” asked CNS News.
The senator expressed no concern about Communist China “overreacting” to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which the totalitarian regime considers to be its territory.
“The United States has already made clear that the speaker’s possible visit to Taiwan does not change U.S. policy, and that China should not overreact,” said Warren.
Pelosi arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport in Taiwan onTuesday evening local time, the Free Press Journal reported.
#breaking Speaker Pelosi’s convoy appears to be arriving now at Grand Hyatt, Taipei. Foreign ministry in Taipei issued statement welcoming Pelosi. Chinese military on “high alert” and says military exercises around Taiwan will begin in the coming hours.
CNN video @EricCheungwc pic.twitter.com/tkeMV8z0na
— Will Ripley (@willripleyCNN) August 2, 2022
Her trip comes despite prior threats from China’s government of its military taking “strong measures,” spurring concern in Washington of strained relations between the world’s two largest economies.
“If the United States goes ahead with [Pelosi’s visit], the Chinese military will never watch and do nothing,” Chinese Ministry of Defense spokesman Tan Kefei said this week. “It will take strong measures to thwart any external interference and separatist plans for ‘Taiwan independence’ and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping warned U.S. President Joe Biden against playing with fire during a phone call on Thursday.
“Those who play with fire will perish by it,” China’s foreign ministry quoted Xi telling Biden, according to a Reuters report on Sunday. “It is hoped that the U.S. will be clear-eyed about this.”
Social media posts show Chinese military equipment arriving at a port in Xiamen Island across from the Taiwan Strait.
Chinese military equipment arrived at port in Xiamen Island opposite the #Taiwan strait. pic.twitter.com/Ii5fvbGnNt
— Intel Consortium PSF (@INTELPSF) August 2, 2022
The Chinese military posted a promotional video on China’s social media platform WeChat ahead of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
Pelosi emphasized America’s solidarity with Taiwan in a statement with a congressional delegation released shortly after they landed.
“America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy,” the statement reads.
It lists mutual security, economic partnership, and democratic governance as the focuses of the delegation’s trip to the Indo-Pacific, which includes stops in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.
“Our visit is one of several congressional delegations to Taiwan – and it in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, U.S.-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances. The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo,” the statement concludes.
Pelosi is the highest-ranking American politician to visit Taiwan since then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) visited in 1997, according to Bloomberg.
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