China won’t isolate Taiwan by prohibiting US officials from visiting, according to Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House, who made the statement on Friday.She made the comments in Tokyo, the last stop on an Asia tour that was capped by an angry China-provoking trip to Taiwan.
The US commitment to democracy in Taiwan and abroad “remains unbreakable,” according to Pelosi, the first House speaker to visit the island in 25 years.
Pelosi and five other Congressmen travelled to Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and South Korea before arriving late Thursday in Tokyo.China labelled her visit to the island a provocation and on Thursday started military manoeuvres, including missile launching, in six zones encircling Taiwan. China claims Taiwan and has threatened to conquer it by force if necessary.
After five ballistic missiles fired as part of the exercises touched down in Japan’s exclusive economic zone on Friday, the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida referred to them as a “severe problem” that endangers regional peace and security.
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After brunch with Nancy Pelosi and her congressional delegation, Kishida stated that the missile launches must be “stopped immediately.”
“Sadly, Taiwan has been prevented from participating in global meetings, most recently the World Health Organization, because of objections by the Chinese Communist party,” Pelosi said in a statement.
“While they may prevent Taiwan from sending its leaders to global forums, they cannot prevent world leaders or anyone from travelling to Taiwan to pay respect to its flourishing democracy, to highlight its many successes and to reaffirm our commitment to continued collaboration”.
Pelosi’s visit to the self-governing island earlier this week was criticised by China, which claims Taiwan and has threatened to annex it by force if necessary. On Thursday, military drills, including missile strike training, were launched in six zones surrounding Taiwan, which could be the country’s largest since the mid-1990s.
She emphasised once more that the visit of the US representative was not intended to alter the situation in this country, in Asia, or in Taiwan. “It’s about, again, the Taiwan Relations Act, the US-China policy, all of the pieces of legislation and agreements that have established what our relationship is, to have peace in the Taiwan Straits and to have the status quo prevail. To that end, as you see, the Chinese made their strikes, probably using our visit as an excuse,” She stressed.
