(Beijing) A firm warning: China said on Wednesday that the United States will have to “assume all the consequences” of a potential visit by the leader of the American congressmen Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, amid high Sino-American tensions.
Posted at 6:24 a.m.
Updated at 8:05 a.m.
These remarks come before a possible phone call in the coming days between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Joe Biden.
The subjects of friction between Beijing and Washington have multiplied over the years: South China Sea, treatment of Uyghur Muslims, growing influence of China in Asia-Pacific, war in Ukraine or even Taiwan.
China considers the island, with a population of 24 million, to be one of its historic provinces that it has yet to reunite with the rest of the country.
Opposed to any initiative that would give the Taiwanese authorities international legitimacy, Beijing is against any official contact between Taiwan and other states.
The Chinese government has also increased military and diplomatic pressure against the island since the election in 2016 of a Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen, from an independence party.
At the same time, China-US tensions have increased in recent years with several US arms sales to Taiwan and the visit to the island of US politicians who have come to offer their support to the Taiwanese authorities.
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives and as such one of the highest figures in the American state, is still planning to visit Taiwan next month, according to press reports.
” Red line ”
Member of the Democratic Party like Joe Biden, Mme Pelosi didn’t say if she would make the trip well, but she said she thinks it’s “important […] to show support for Taiwan.
China had warned Monday that it was “standing ready” to respond to such a visit. Beijing reiterated Wednesday during a regular press briefing its “firm opposition”.
“If the United States persists in defying China’s red line” with this visit to Taiwan, it “will face strong measures in response and must bear all the consequences”, warned a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, Zhao Lijian.
He was responding to a question about press reports that the US military would increase its activity in Asia-Pacific in the event of a visit by Nancy Pelosi.
Taiwan (officially the “Republic of China”) has its own government, currency and military. But economic and interpersonal relations with mainland China remain strong, and the island has never officially declared its independence.
The communist government based in Beijing (the “People’s Republic of China”) threatens to use force if this is the case.
Simple hypothesis for the moment, the potential displacement of Mme Pelosi is being debated within the US government itself.
Unusually, Joe Biden himself noted last week that the US military felt that this visit was “not a good idea”.
Pressure
Asked Wednesday about the possible arrival of Mme Pelosi, Taiwanese Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang confined himself to saying that he was open to any visit from “friendly foreign guests”.
“We are very grateful to President Pelosi for her support and friendship with Taiwan over the years. »
Taiwan enjoys broad support in the US Congress and Beijing’s warnings have only prompted calls for Mme Pelosi to maintain his trip.
The United States, like the vast majority of countries in the world, does not recognize Taiwan as a country.
But Washington strongly supports the island, highlighting its “democratic” status, and remains Taipei’s most important partner and arms supplier.
Seeing this US activism as an attack on its sovereignty, China has increased pressure against Taipei in recent years.
In order to assert its claims of sovereignty over the island, it has thus sent military aircraft on numerous occasions to the air defense identification zone (“Adiz”) of Taiwan – far from the Taiwanese coast, however.
CIA boss Bill Burns recently said the question was no longer whether China would invade the island, but “when and how”.