After departing Taiwan on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) released a statement saying that “America stands with Taiwan” and directly denouncing China’s attempts to ostracize Taiwan from the global community.
“Our Congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as a strong statement that America stands with Taiwan,” Pelosi began. “We came to Taiwan to listen to, learn from and show our support for the people of Taiwan, who have built a thriving Democracy that stands as one of the freest and most open in the world.”
“Taiwan is a very special place: a key ally in peace and security, a global leader in economic dynamism and a model of democratic governance,” Pelosi said. “Sadly, Taiwan has been prevented from participating in global meetings, most recently the World Health Organization, because of objections by the Chinese Communist Party. While they may prevent Taiwan from sending its leaders to global forums, they cannot prevent world leaders or anyone from traveling to Taiwan to pay respect to its flourishing Democracy, to highlight its many successes and to reaffirm our commitment to continued collaboration.”
Pelosi said that she had meetings with “the very impressive President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu” that were “very positive and productive.”
“In the community, it was very inspiring for us to meet with advocates for human rights in China at the National Museum of Human Rights,” Pelosi continued. “While in Taipei, it was my humble honor to receive the Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon, which I treasure as an enduring symbol of friendship between America and Taiwan. As I said upon receiving the award, our partnership remains unwavering, and support in the Congress – House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans – remains ironclad.”
“This visit is part of our broader travels in the Indo-Pacific, focused on security, prosperity and governance – on which Taiwan is a global leader. America’s solidarity with the people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as we continue to support the defense of democracy against autocracy in the region and in the world,” she concluded.
Since news broke of Pelosi’s plan to visit Taiwan, China has been issuing threats against the United States and Taiwan. Shortly after her arrival, China began military exercises around the country in order to “rehearse” ways China could take Taiwan “by force” in the future.
According to CNN, “Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said 27 Chinese warplanes made incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, and 22 planes crossed the median line dividing the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday — an unprecedented number since Taiwan began publicly releasing information about China’s air incursions about two years ago.”
At the same time, the Chinese Communist Party released a statement saying Pelosi’s visit is “a deliberate provocation and a playing with fire.”
“It has a severe impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and seriously infringes on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It gravely undermines peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and sends a seriously wrong signal to the separatist forces for ‘Taiwan independence’. The move is extremely egregious in nature and will have extremely serious consequences. China will not sit idly by,” the statement added. “The U.S. government must be held accountable.”
