Taiwan struck a defiant tone Wednesday as it hosted US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with a furious China gearing up for military exercises dangerously close to the island s shores in retaliation for the visit.Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday despite a series of increasingly stark threats from Beijing, which views the island as its territory and had said it would consider the visit a major provocation.China responded swiftly, warning the US ambassador in Beijing of extremely serious consequences and announcing military drills in seas around Taiwan some of the world s busiest waterways. Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down. We will... continue to hold the line of defence for democracy, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing wen said at an event with Pelosi in Taipei.She also thanked Pelosi for taking concrete actions to show your staunch support for Taiwan at this critical moment .China tries to keep Taiwan isolated on the world stage and opposes countries having official exchanges with Taipei.Pelosi, second in line to the presidency, is the highest profile elected US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. Today, our delegation... came to Taiwan to make unequivocally clear we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, she said at the event with Tsai.Earlier, Pelosi said her group had come in friendship to Taiwan and in peace to the region .The administration of President Joe Biden said in the run up to the visit that US policy towards Taiwan remained unchanged.This means support for its government while diplomatically recognising Beijing over Taipei, and opposing a formal independence declaration by Taiwan or a forceful takeover by China.While the White House is understood to be opposed to Pelosi s Taiwan stop, its National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said she was entitled to go where she pleased.
Extremely egregious After Pelosi touched down Tuesday night in a military aircraft following days of feverish speculation about her plans, the Chinese foreign ministry summoned US Ambassador Nicholas Burns.Her visit is extremely egregious in nature and the consequences are extremely serious , Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng told Burns, according to state news agency Xinhua.
