China is issuing an ominous threat over U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s reported plans to visit Taiwan.
Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it will take “resolute and strong measures” if the California Democrat heads to the island in August after a scheduled April visit was postponed because of her positive COVID-19 test.
Communist China considers Taiwan to be a breakaway province. U.S. leaders support Taiwan’s right to democratic self-rule but typically take a careful diplomatic stance, known as “strategic ambiguity,” about its formal status.
Mrs. Pelosi’s visit, as reported in The Financial Times, would be the highest-profile visit by a U.S. official since Speaker Newt Gingrich visited in the late 1990s.
Her visit would “severely undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, gravely impact the foundation of China-U.S. relations and send a seriously wrong signal to Taiwan independence forces,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijiang said at his daily briefing.
“If the U.S. were to insist on going down the wrong path, China will take resolute and strong measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.
It is unclear what steps China might take, but it could send more military flights into the region or bully ships in the South China Sea.