Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo yesterday said that he was willing to travel to Taiwan with US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Nancy, I’ll go with you. I’m banned in China, but not freedom-loving Taiwan,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter. “See you there!”
Pompeo — who visited Taiwan for the first time in March and has urged the US to officially recognize it as a free, independent nation, and establish official diplomatic ties — made the comment amid frothy rhetoric from China and contradictory signals coming out of Washington over Pelosi’s possible visit.
Photo: AFP
The Financial Times on Monday last week first reported that Pelosi was planning to visit Taiwan next month.
Pelosi has not confirmed when, or even if, she would visit.
Should the trip be confirmed, Pelosi would be the first sitting US House speaker to visit Taiwan since 1997, when her predecessor Newt Gingrich of the Republican Party traveled to Taipei and met then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) during another period of tense cross-strait relations.
File photo: AP
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday last week said that a visit to Taiwan by Pelosi would seriously undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the US would bear the consequences of its response.
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday last week said that he plans to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) by the end of the month. Biden appeared to cast doubt on Pelosi’s reported trip to Taiwan.
“I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now, but I don’t know what the status of it is,” Biden told reporters.
The Financial Times on Saturday cited sources as saying that China has issued stark private warnings to the Biden administration, adding that the private rhetoric suggested a possible military response.
China yesterday confirmed that it had delivered sterner warnings to US officials about Pelosi’s possible visit to Taiwan.
“The Chinese side has made it clear to the US on many occasions that it is firmly opposed to Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. We are fully prepared,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) told a media briefing.
“If the US goes its own way, China will certainly take firm and forceful measures to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the United States should be held responsible for any serious consequences,” he said.
A number of Republican US lawmakers have urged Pelosi to proceed with the trip.
Among them were US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry.
“We strongly encourage you to reject the objections of China’s rulers and President Biden and proceed with your planned trip,” they said in a joint letter on Friday. “As the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, you should never have to ask a foreign dictatorship or the State Department for permission to talk to America’s friends and allies.”
They also called on Pelosi to convene a floor vote to pass a resolution to end “the outdated and nonsensical” “one China” policy to normalize US-Taiwan relations.
“The world has undergone dramatic changes since the days of [former US presidents] Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. Taiwan has become a vibrant, multiparty democracy, while China has become more oppressive, more belligerent, and more dangerous,” the letter said.
“Yet America’s policy framework remains on autopilot, frozen in a 1970’s time warp. It is time for [the US] Congress to revisit this policy and have an open and honest debate about how best to modernize it,” it said.
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
RSS