WASHINGTON, July 21, 2022 (AFP) — A possible visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has raised concerns in Washington, and President Joe Biden has said the military is opposed to fears of escalating tensions with China.
Asked about this possible visit, Biden replied on Wednesday night (20): “The military doesn’t think it’s a good idea.”
Recently, several US delegations visited Taiwan, an island backed by the United States but claimed by China as part of its territory.
Nancy Pelosi will be the highest-ranking American personality to visit the country in decades. According to the Constitution, Vice President Kamala Harris is the successor of the female President of Congress after Kamala Harris. Pelosi’s office has yet to confirm the visit, but a press leak has already angered Beijing.
“China strongly opposes any kind of official exchanges between the United States and Taiwan. (…) If Pelosi visits Taiwan, (…) it will be the political foundation of Sino-US relations. “Wrong for pro-independence forces on the island,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.
“If the United States insists on adhering to this idea (regarding Taiwan), China will take firm and strong measures to protect its national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.
The controversy comes at a bad time, as Biden plans to speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping “in the next 10 days”, he said late last night.
The US president, who is already dealing with the invasion of Ukraine and several internal problems, does not want to open a new front when tensions are already high around Taiwan.
CIA director Bill Burns recently said the question is not whether China will invade the island, but “when and how.”
Biden has already angered Beijing by claiming in late May that the United States would intervene militarily to support Taiwan in the event of an invasion by Communist China. Later, he went back and used the term “strategic ambiguity”.
This deliberately vague concept, which has governed Washington’s policy toward Taiwan for decades, dictates that the United States should establish the principle of “one China”, with its capital in Beijing. Nor does it officially recognize Taiwan, but it supports it militarily, avoiding mention of intervention to protect it in the event of an invasion.
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