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US Speaker Nancy Pelosi In Taiwan Despite China Death Threat

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

TAIPEI (Worthy News) – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi touched down in Taiwan as part of a tour of Asia, despite China branding the landmark visit “extremely dangerous.”

“Those who play with fire will perish by it,” Beijing warned in a statement late Tuesday.

But Pelosi said U.S. solidarity with Taiwan “is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.”

As her plane landed, Chinese state media reported that its military jets crossed the Taiwan strait.

Russia, a close ally of China, called the visit a “clear provocation.” Pelosi was to meet Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen in the morning, then fly out after lunch, the country’s official central news agency said.

The trip, not backed by President Joe Biden, is the first by such a senior U.S. official in decades. Beijing views self-ruled democratic Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually be part of the country

ARMY PRESSURE

China’s army stepped up the pressure Tuesday, with Beijing warning rust it would hold military exercises near Taiwan from Thursday until Sunday.

With much of the world focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there are concerns about an armed conflict between China and Taiwan, a senior U.S. security official told Worthy News.

Critics have expressed concern that her visit will undermine successful efforts by the Biden administration to persuade China’s President Xi Jinping not to supply Russia with military aid for its invasion of Ukraine.

That could now be put in jeopardy, the political commentator Thomas Friedman suggested.

Pelosi’s visit also provides a window onto a new dimension in global news reporting, observers said.

China’s perceived growing intolerance of independent journalism has seen many foreign reporters setting up instead in Taipei.