(Tokyo) The United States “will not allow” China to isolate Taiwan, Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said Friday in Tokyo, after a visit to Taiwan that drew the ire of Beijing.
Updated yesterday at 11:41 p.m.
Mme Pelosi, 82, who was in Japan — the last leg of her Asian tour — for the first time since 2015, angered China by visiting Taiwan on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Beijing considers this autonomous territory of 23 million inhabitants as an integral part of its territory, and responded by launching Thursday military exercises of unprecedented scale around the island, in particular firing ballistic missiles, some of which would have fallen in the area. Japan’s exclusive economy.
“The Chinese carried out these shots, probably using our visit as a pretext,” commented Mr.me Pelosi at a Friday press conference in Tokyo.
They “tried to isolate Taiwan”, she added, recalling that Beijing had in the spring rejected a call from the United States to allow Taiwan’s participation in the annual meeting of the World Health Organization. (WHO).
But “they won’t isolate Taiwan by preventing us from going there. We had high-level visits, from senators in the spring, in a bipartisan way […] and we will not allow them to isolate Taiwan,” she said. “They don’t decide where we go. »
This tour of the region “was not intended to change the status quo here in Asia, to change the status quo in Taiwan”, assured Mr.me Pelosi.
Since 1979, Washington has recognized only one Chinese government, that of Beijing, while continuing to provide support to the Taiwanese authorities, in particular via major arms sales.
This visit, she said, “concerned the Taiwan Relations Act “, law passed by the American Congress in 1979 and which characterizes the relations between the United States and Taiwan, but also “the United States / China policy, all the texts of law and agreements which established what our relations are “ .
“It’s about celebrating Taiwan for what it is, a great democracy with a thriving economy, with respect for all of its people.”
Regarding China-US relations, she said that if the United States “did not speak out about human rights in China because of (our) business interests, then we would lose all moral authority to talk about human rights anywhere in the world”.