A US news broadcaster on Thursday cited sources as saying that US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi departed for Asia yesterday, with a “tentative” itinerary for Taiwan.
The trip’s official itinerary comprises Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, NBC News said.
The report also cited sources as saying that Pelosi’s Taiwan itinerary was only listed as “tentative,” and whether she would visit Taiwan is not clear.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The report said that Pelosi has invited senior lawmakers to join her on the trip, including US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Gregory Meeks and US House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano, who led a delegation of lawmakers to Taiwan last year, the report said.
US Representative Michael McCaul’s office on Wednesday said that the lawmaker had also been invited, but he will not be able to go due to other scheduling arrangements.
Pelosi’s planned trip to Taiwan was first reported on Monday last week by the Financial Times, which cited six people familiar with the matter as saying the 82-year-old Democrat is planning to lead a delegation to Taiwan next month to show support for Taipei as it faces increasing pressure from Beijing.
China has expressed strong opposition to Pelosi’s rumored visit to Taipei.
Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the US, said that Pelosi wishes to stop in Taiwan during the Asia trip, based on her knowledge.
“I understand that Pelosi is determined to go. The momentum that has built over the past week certainly has raised the cost of a decision not to go, but I think there are still ways to postpone the trip and save face,” Glaser said.
The US Congress or the executive branch would need to take other measures to signal a resolve to defend US interests and support Taiwan in order to not appear weak in the event the Taiwan trip does not happen, she added.
Ian Easton, senior director at the Project 2049 Institute, a US think tank, yesterday said he believes Pelosi would visit Taiwan.
“I absolutely don’t think it will provoke a crisis in the Taiwan Strait. I think she should go,” he told Voice of America.
If Pelosi decided not to make the trip due to “clear coercion and intimidation tactics” from Beijing, it would “send exactly the wrong message at the wrong time,” he added.
Easton said that Pelosi’s flight would likely be escorted by US Air Force F-22s into Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) “given the nature of the coercion.”
Should the rumored trip be confirmed, Pelosi would be the first sitting US House speaker to visit since 1997, when then-speaker Newt Gingrich traveled to Taipei and met with then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) during another period of tense cross-strait relations.
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