(PatrioticPost.com)- Last weekend, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi confirmed that she will be leaving Sunday with a congressional delegation to visit Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan. And though Taiwan was not listed on the delegation’s itinerary, Pelosi did visit Taiwan later in the week.
Before her trip, the rumors that Pelosi planned to visit Taiwan only further roiled relations between Washington and Beijing, prompting China to issue warnings and threats should Pelosi follow through on her plans.
Last Thursday, President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping held a two-hour and seventeen-minute phone call in which Xi warned Biden about interfering with China’s sovereignty when it comes to Taiwan.
In its read-out of the Thursday call, China’s Foreign Ministry said Xi told Biden that Beijing remains consistent in its position about Taiwan and would “resolutely” safeguard China’s “national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
According to China’s foreign ministry, Xi warned the president, “Those who play with fire will perish by it,” and added that Beijing hopes the United States would be “clear-eyed about this.”
In a now-deleted tweet, last week, Hu Xijin, a columnist for the state-run Global Times, described Pelosi’s potential visit to Taiwan as an invasion. He warned that if US fighter jets escort Pelosi’s flight to Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army would have the right to fire warning shots and even shoot down the planes.
When she was asked about Hu Xijin’s threats against Pelosi during Friday’s press briefing, press secretary Karine Jean Pierre refused to discuss it, calling the threats a “hypothetical.”
Peter Doocy: "An official who is associated with Chinese State media is suggesting that if Speaker Pelosi tries to go to Taiwan that her plane could be shot down. Does the president have a response to that?"
WH Press Sec: "I'm not going to speak to a hypothetical." pic.twitter.com/NoHK9eWqn4
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) July 29, 2022
Speaker Pelosi and her congressional delegation touched down at Taipei Songshong airport in Taiwan on Tuesday morning.
In a joint statement, Pelosi and the delegation said their visit to Taiwan “honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant Democracy.”
The last time such a high-ranking government official visited Taiwan was in 1997 when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich traveled there.
