Nancy Pelosi says Beijing used her trip as pretext for aggressive Taiwan Strait actions
- ‘We will not allow China to isolate Taiwan,’ Nancy Pelosi says in her first extensive public remarks after her visit to Taipei
- Her comments are the latest sign that Washington’s eagerness to support Taiwan has only hardened in the aftermath of Beijing’s reaction to the trip.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday that Beijing’s unprecedented military drills around Taiwan after her trip to the island last week have upended a long-standing status quo in the region, and that her visit was being used by Beijing merely as a “pretext” to act more aggressively.
“What we saw with China is they were trying to establish sort of a new normal, and we just can’t let that happen,” she said, in her first extensive public comments following her trip. “Their pretext was our visit for them to do what they normally do, intensified.”
She added: “We will not allow China to isolate Taiwan.”
Pelosi led a delegation of House Democrats on an Asian tour that had been postponed in the spring when she tested positive for Covid-19, and included an overnight visit to Taiwan – the first by a US House Speaker since 1997. Other stops included Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.
Her comments, at a news conference at the Capitol where she was joined by other members of the delegation, were the latest sign that Washington’s bipartisan eagerness to support Taiwan has only hardened in the aftermath of China’s reaction to the trip.
After the delegation left, the People’s Liberation Army began a series of large-scale, live-fire military drills surrounding Taiwan that analysts say amounted to an effective blockade.
