Pelosi says US won’t abandon Taiwan as China protests : NPR

U.S. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, middle left, and Taiwanese President President Tsai Ing-wen arrive for a gathering in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022.

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U.S. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, middle left, and Taiwanese President President Tsai Ing-wen arrive for a gathering in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022.

AP

TAIPEI, Taiwan — U.S. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, assembly leaders in Taiwan regardless of warnings from China, mentioned Wednesday that she and different members of Congress in a visiting delegation are exhibiting they won’t abandon their dedication to the self-governing island.

“Immediately the world faces a selection between democracy and autocracy,” she mentioned in a brief speech throughout a gathering with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen. “America’s willpower to protect democracy, right here in Taiwan and around the globe, stays ironclad.”

China, which claims Taiwan as its territory and opposes any engagement by Taiwanese officers with overseas governments, introduced a number of navy workouts across the island and issued a sequence of harsh statements after the delegation touched down within the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, on Tuesday night time.

Pelosi’s journey has heightened U.S.-China tensions greater than visits by different members of Congress due to her high-level place as chief of the Home of Representatives. She is the primary speaker of the home to come back to Taiwan in 25 years, since Newt Gingrich in 1997.

Tsai, thanking Pelosi for her many years of help for Taiwan, introduced the speaker with a civilian honor, the Order of the Propitious Clouds. She was extra pointed about Chinese language threats in her remarks than Pelosi was.

“Dealing with intentionally heightened navy threats, Taiwan won’t again down,” Tsai mentioned. “We’ll firmly uphold our nation’s sovereignty and proceed to carry the road of protection for democracy.”

Shortly after Pelosi landed, China introduced live-fire drills that will begin Tuesday night time and a four-day train starting Thursday in waters on all sides of the island.

China’s air pressure additionally flew a comparatively giant contingent of 21 warfare planes, together with fighter jets, towards Taiwan.

Pelosi famous that help for Taiwan is bipartisan in Congress and praised the island’s democracy.

Her focus has all the time been the identical, she mentioned, going again to her 1991 go to to Beijing’s Tiananmen Sq., when she and different lawmakers unfurled a small banner supporting democracy, two years after a bloody navy crackdown on protesters on the sq..

That go to was additionally about human rights and what she referred to as harmful know-how transfers to “rogue international locations.”

Pelosi is visiting a human rights museum in Taipei later Wednesday earlier than she departs for South Korea, the subsequent cease on an Asia tour that additionally consists of Singapore, Malaysia and Japan.

Pelosi, who’s main the journey with 5 different members of Congress, met earlier Wednesday with representatives from Taiwan’s legislature.

“Madam Speaker’s go to to Taiwan with the delegation, with out worry, is the strongest protection of upholding human rights and consolidation of the values of democracy and freedom,” Tsai Chi-chang, vice chairman of Taiwan’s legislature, mentioned in welcome.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has sought to tone down the quantity on the go to, insisting there isn’t any change in America’s longstanding “one-China coverage,” which acknowledges Beijing however permits casual relations and protection ties with Taipei.

Pelosi mentioned her delegation has “heft,” together with Gregory Meeks, chair of the Home Overseas Affairs Committee, and Raja Krishnamoorthi from the Home Intelligence Committee.

She additionally talked about Rep. Suzan DelBene, whom Pelosi mentioned was instrumental within the passage of a $280 billion invoice aimed toward boosting American manufacturing and analysis in semi-conductor chips — an business during which Taiwan dominates that’s very important for contemporary electronics.

Reps. Andy Kim and Mark Takano are additionally within the delegation.