Nancy Pelosi

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will visit Taiwan, according to media reports. China on Monday issued new warnings against the trip.

"If she doesn't go now, she's handed China sort of a victory," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said. Otherwise the U.S. government must take responsibility and bear consequences for any act" that China sees as a violation of its agreements with the United States. "It is hoped that the U.S. will be clear-eyed about this. At the same time, we will not be intimidated," he said. We will not take the bait or engage in saber rattling. The United States has long embraced a murky middle ground that seeks to support Taiwan without infuriating Beijing. Pelosi's office declined to comment on the reports Monday. The top two Republicans in Congress said not going to Taiwan in the wake of China's threats would be a win for Beijing. "We have repeatedly said that we oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side, we have said that we do not support Taiwan independence, and we have said that we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means," Kirby said. Biden said, "The military thinks it’s not a good idea right now" for Pelosi to visit Taiwan. Zhao Lijian, deputy director of the Information Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said his country's military will "not sit idly by" if Pelosi visits Taiwan, according to Reuters. WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will visit Taiwan in the coming days, according to news media reports, defying threats of Chinese retaliation to make the highest-level U.S. visit in 25 years.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime China hawk, has not confirmed that she plans to visit Taiwan, but all indications suggest that she will make a stop on the ...

He might not want to be in the air if / when Pelosi lands in Taiwan. “We would like to tell the US once again that China is standing by, and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will never sit idly by. The decision is entirely the Speaker’s. What I can say is this: this is very much precedent in the sense that previous speakers visited Taiwan. Many members of Congress go to Taiwan, including this year. With regard to Taiwan, first, the Speaker will make her own decisions about whether or not to visit Taiwan. Congress is an independent, coequal branch of government. Mr. Kirby also stressed repeatedly that the United States still subscribed to its one-China policy of not recognizing independence for Taiwan. She originally planned to visit Taiwan in April but called off that trip after testing positive for the coronavirus. “It does increase the risk of miscalculation, which could lead to unintended consequences,” Mr. Kirby said. Mr. Kirby did not say whether American intelligence agencies had detected any concrete indications of Chinese actions, but he was unusually specific in outlining the possible responses that the United States anticipated. “It’s not new. Nothing about this potential visit — potential visit — which by the way has precedent, would change the status quo.” “We’ve laid out very clearly if she goes — if she goes — it’s not without precedent,” he said. Ms. Pelosi, a longtime China hawk, has not confirmed that she plans to visit Taiwan even as she stopped in Singapore on Monday, but all indications suggest that she will make a stop on the self-governing island without prior announcement.

The White House urged China not to escalate tensions with the US in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's expected visit to Taiwan, signaling the Biden ...

The White House warned Monday that a potential visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could prompt China to take significant inflammatory ...

Increased engagement between U.S. officials and Taipei has led Beijing to worry that Washington has taken steps to change the status quo. Beijing has repeatedly said it will use force if necessary to “reunify” Taiwan and its 23 million people with the motherland. Police chased Pelosi and the lawmakers traveling with her out of the square. The White House official said Sullivan was not more concerned than others, and like other officials agreed it was Pelosi’s decision whether she wanted to go. Meanwhile, Beijing has warned that it would retaliate if she visits, and an official Chinese statement warned the Biden administration against “playing with fire” on Taiwan. Pelosi is a longtime critic of Beijing and has been vilified by China’s leaders in the past. All of the senior members of Biden’s national security team thought there were concerns about the timing of the trip, said a White House official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Pelosi would be the first House speaker to travel to the self-governed democratic island since Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in 1997. As for Beijing, he added, “What we would hope they infer from everything we’ve done, and everything we’ve said, including during the president’s phone call, is that we’re being consistent.” Or, he said, it could carry out operations that “break historical norms” such as sending larger numbers of military jets across the midpoint separating Taiwan from mainland China. “I think we’ll see more actions over the next several months.” Kirby did not confirm that Pelosi plans to stop in Taiwan, but his extensive comments to reporters suggested the White House is positioning itself for such a visit.