(Beijing) A caveat: China warned on Wednesday that the United States will have to bear “all the consequences” of a potential visit by the leader of the American congressmen Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, amid Sino-American tensions.
Posted at 6:24 a.m.
These remarks come before a phone call scheduled for the next few days between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Joe Biden.
The subjects of friction between Beijing and Washington have multiplied in recent years: South China Sea, 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, although it does not control the territory.
Beijing opposes any official contact between Taiwan and other countries. The Chinese government has 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 also increased 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, leader 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.
Mme Pelosi didn’t confirm whether she would make the trip, but she said she thinks it’s “important for us to show support for Taiwan.”
Controversial
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.
This potential trip to Taiwan is currently only a hypothesis and 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”.
The controversy is unwelcome for the American president because of the call with Xi Jinping, presented as imminent.
It also comes as Mr. Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, prepares to cement his power at the Communist Party Congress later this year.
Taiwan enjoys broad support in the U.S. Congress, and Beijing’s threats have only prompted calls for Mme Pelosi to maintain his trip.
“Provocative”
The United States, like the vast majority of countries in the world, does not officially recognize Taiwan.
But they strongly support the island, whose “democratic” status they highlight, and Washington is 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.
For example, it has sent military planes to the air defense identification zone (“Adiz”, in English) of Taiwan – several hundred kilometers from the coast of the island.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month that the incursions were a sign of “increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity” from Beijing.
Joe Biden angered Beijing by saying at the end of May that the United States would intervene militarily to support Taiwan in the event of an invasion by China.
He then went back, affirming his attachment to “strategic ambiguity”.
Taiwan, which has its own government, currency and army, has never declared formal independence. China threatens to use force if that were the case.