Pelosi visit to Taiwan 'not a good idea', says US military
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives , Nancy Pelosi
The U.S. military says a planned visit to Taiwan by the patroness of U.S. congressmen, which is angering Beijing as much as embarrassing the government, is “not a good idea,” President Joe Biden said.
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives and as such one of the most senior figures in the American state, refused to tell reporters on Thursday whether she would make the trip, but said she thinks that it was important for us to show support for Taiwan.
Asked about a potential visit by Mrs. Pelosi to the island, Joe Biden replied Wednesday night: The military thinks it's not a good idea. idea, but I don't know where we are.
A number of American delegations recently visited Taiwan, an island supported by the United States, but which China claims to be part of its territory.
However, Nancy Pelosi is said to be the highest institutional-ranking American figure to go there in decades.
She is indeed, after Vice-President Kamala Harris, the one who would succeed the President, according to American constitutional law.
Ms Pelosi said the president did not directly raise the issue with her.
“Maybe the army was worried that our plane would be shot down, or something, by the Chinese.
— Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives
No one among us said he was for independence right now. regarding Taiwan. It's up to Taiwan to decide, she added.
The leak of this travel plan in the press has already aroused the ire of Beijing.
China firmly opposes any form of official exchange between the United States and Taiwan. […] If Pelosi visits Taiwan, it […] would have a serious impact on the political basis of US-China relations and would really send the wrong signal to the independence forces of the island, reacted on Tuesday a door -speaker of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“If the United States persists in following its own idea [on Taiwan], China will take resolute and strong measures to firmly safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
—Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson
The controversy is unwelcome for Joe Biden, who is due to speak to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping within the next ten days, he said Wednesday night.
The American president, already struggling with the invasion of Ukraine and a mountain of domestic problems, does not want to engage a new front, when tensions around Taiwan are already extremely high.
CIA boss Bill Burns recently said that the question was no longer whether China would invade the island, but “when and when.” how”.
Joe Biden had already angered Beijing by saying in late May that the United States would intervene militarily to support Taiwan in the event of an invasion by China Communist.
He then went back, affirming his attachment to strategic ambiguity.
This deliberately vague concept, which has governed Washington's Taiwanese policy for decades, consists for the United States of laying down the principle of a single China whose capital is at Beijing, without officially recognizing Taiwan, while supporting the island militarily and without saying whether or not they would intervene militarily to defend it in the event of an invasion.
