US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to visit Taiwan next month, the Financial Times reported yesterday, citing six people familiar with the matter.
Pelosi and her delegation would also visit Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, and spend time in Hawaii at the headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific Command, the paper said.
Her office and the US Department of State did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Taiwan’s representative in the US could not immediately be reached.
The Democratic leader had planned to visit Taiwan in April, but the trip was postponed after she tested positive for COVID-19.
At the time, China said such a visit would severely affect Chinese-US relations.
Pelosi held an online meeting with Vice President William Lai (賴清德) in January as he wrapped up a visit to the US and Honduras.
The White House had expressed concern about the trip, the Financial Times said, citing three people familiar with the situation.
There were divisions in the US administration over whether Pelosi should visit Taiwan, the paper quoted two sources as saying.
Some officials believed it had been easier to justify a visit in April, as that was just after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it added.
China sent fighter jets into the Taiwan Strait this month in what Taipei described as a provocation.
The incident came during a visit to Taipei by US Senator Rick Scott, a member of the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee.
News of a possible visit by Pelosi comes after China on Monday asked the US to immediately cancel a potential sale of military technical assistance to Taiwan worth an estimated US$108 million.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement yesterday that it had received no information about a planned visit by Pelosi.
Extending invitations to US officials to visit Taiwan is an important task for the ministry as it works to deepen ties with the US, it said, adding that it would make details of any such trip public in due course.
Additional reporting by CNA
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