US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday as China lined a beach opposite the breakaway island with tanks (Pictures: WeChat/AP)
China piled a beach opposite Taiwan with tanks and vowed to fight ‘to the death’ as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi touched down in the self-ruled island for the highest-level visit by a US official in a quarter century.
Tanks lined the Fujian coast by the Taiwan Strait in dramatic video shared on the Chinese social network Weibo, and it appeared military equipment was being transferred in Xiamen. Chinese warplanes jetted along the Taiwan Strait.
The setup for a standoff unfolded as Pelosi landed in Taiwan’s capital of Taipei on Tuesday, despite strong objections and warnings from the Chinese government.
Wearing a pink suit and face mask, Pelosi stepped down a US Air Force plane and waved, surrounded by Taiwanese officials.
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Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday night despite threats from Beijing of serious consequences (Picture: AP)
Shortly after touching down, Pelosi stated that her visit ‘honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant democracy’.
‘Our discussions with Taiwan leadership will focus on reaffirming our support for our partner and on promoting our shared interests, including advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region,’ stated Pelosi.
‘America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.’
Pelosi landed a day after China released propaganda showing its soldiers primed to fight to the end.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taipei on Tuesday
Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday evening, defying days of increasingly stark warnings from China that have sent tensions between the world’s two superpowers soaring (Picture: Getty Images)
‘We are fully prepared for any eventuality. Fight upon order, bury every intruder, and move toward joint and successful operations,’ said the troops, according to the state media tabloid The Global Times.
‘We are PLA soldiers, we swear to defend the motherland to the death.’
After Pelosi landed, China’s Foreign Ministry condemned the trip, saying it ‘seriously undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, seriously undermines the political foundation of Sino-US relations and sends a seriously wrong signal to the “Taiwan independence” separatist forces’.
Meanwhile the Chinese Communist Party’s Taiwan Affairs Office stated that any effort by Taiwan to seek independence would be ‘shattered by the powerful force of the Chinese people’.
Footage of Chinese tanks on a beach opposite Taiwan circulated on the Chinese social media platform WeChat (Picture: WeChat)
Armored vehicles in the Chinese city of Xiamen appeared ahead of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan (Picture: Twitter)
Pelosi’s stop in Taiwan was not part of her Asia trip itinerary, but was a point of discussion for weeks before she took off form the US.
Beijing on Monday warned that Pelosi visiting the democratic island would have an ‘egregious political impact’. The Chinese military ‘won’t sit by idly’ in the event of a threat to ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity’, China said.
President Joe Biden has said he will defend Taiwan if a conflict breaks out. In a lengthy phone call last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Biden that the US was ‘playing with fire’ if Pelosi went through with her visit.
Pelosi, the second in the line of succession to the presidency after Vice President Kamala Harris, has long been a vocal critic of Beijing. Beijing claims that Taiwan belongs to China, but the Taiwanese say they are a separate country.
She landed in Taipei late night and is expected to stay overnight, a Taiwanese official told CNN.
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