The president of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, visited the Kuala Lumpur Parliament on Tuesday, amid information that indicates that this afternoon she will set course for Taiwan, despite to China’s warnings not to do so.
Pelosi entered the Malaysian Parliament dressed in a pink suit and flanked by an imposing security team at noon, local time (4:00 GMT), which is the second stop on her Asian tour, after having been in Singapore the day before.
The Democrat’s Asian tour, which officially includes, in addition to Singapore and Malaysia, stops in South Korea and Japan, is overshadowed by the possibility that she will travel to Taiwan, in which it would be the first trip by a Speaker of the House of US Representatives since 1997.
Although neither the White House nor Pelosi’s delegation, which is traveling accompanied by a team of congressmen, have confirmed it, Taiwanese media report today that the American is expected to land in Taiwan, at the Songshan airport, on Tuesday night, around 10:20 p.m. local time (2:20 p.m. GMT).
The Taiwanese newspapers The United Daily News, Liberty Times and China Times cite anonymous sources to confirm that she will spend Tuesday night already in Taiwan and will remain there on Wednesday.
According to the Malaysian agency Bernama, Pelosi will have lunch today in Kuala Lumpur with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, after landing in Malaysia on Tuesday morning from Singapore, where on Monday she spoke with its leader, Lee Hsien Loong, about Taiwan and the war in Ukraine, among other issues.
Pelosi’s possible visit to Taiwan – known for maintaining a firm stance against the “abuses” she denounces by Beijing – has raised tension between the world’s two leading economies, in one of its worst moments in decades.
Chinese representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun reiterated on Monday that the trip “will undermine, if carried out, the relationship between China and the United States.”
If it occurs, “the United States must assume all the consequences,” she warned, despite being reminded by journalists that Pelosi’s agenda is not designed by the US State Department and that the executive and legislative branches are independent.
China “will take strong and firm measures. We will do everything in our power to defend our sovereignty (over Taiwan),” which she described as a “red line” for the Chinese government.
For its part, Taiwan, an island that in principle the US would defend in the event of an attack by China, although Washington maintains an ambiguous position on the matter, increased its alert level for combat, the official agency reported today. of the news of the island, CNA.
China claims sovereignty over the island and has considered Taiwan a rebellious province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communists.
Taiwan, with whom the US does not maintain official relations, is one of the main sources of conflict between China and the US, mainly because Washington is the main supplier of weapons to the island and would be its greatest military ally. in the event of war with Beijing.