Nancy Pelosi says US ‘won’t allow’ China to isolate Taiwan

Published on: 08/05/2022 – 07:32Modified on: 08/05/2022 – 07:34 While Beijing, furious at Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, is increasing military exercises, the speaker of the American House of Representatives assured Friday from Tokyo that the United States “will not allow” China to isolate the island of 23 million inhabitants. The United States “will not allow” China to isolate Taiwan, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday (August 5) in Tokyo, after a visit to Taiwan that drew the ire of Beijing.Nancy Pelosi, 82, who was in Japan – the final leg of his Asian tour – for the first time since 2015, angered China by visiting Taiwan on Tuesday and Wednesday. Beijing considers the 23 million self-governing territory inhabitants as an integral part of its territory, and responded by launching military exercises on Thursday of an unprecedented scale around the island, in particular firing ballistic missiles, some of which would have fallen in Japan’s exclusive economic zone. “The Chinese proceeded to these shots, probably using our visit as a pretext”, commented Nancy Pelosi during a press conference Friday in Tokyo. They “tried to isolate Taiwan”, she added, recalling that Beijing had at least spring reject included the United States’ call to allow Taiwan’s participation in the annual meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO). But “they will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us from going there. We had high-level visits, from senators in the spring, in a bipartisan way (…), and we will not allow them to isolate Taiwan” , she launched. “They don’t decide where we go.” Celebrating Taiwan, “a great democracy” This tour of the region “was not intended to change the status quo here in Asia, to change the status quo in Taiwan”, assured Nancy Pelosi. Since 1979, Washington has recognized only one Chinese government, that of Beijing, while continuing to provide support to the Taiwanese authorities, in particular through significant arms sales. This visit, she said, “concerned the ‘Taiwan Relations Act'”, a law passed by the American Congress in 1979 and which characterizes relations between the United States and Taiwan, but also “the United States-China policy, all the texts of laws and agreements which established what our relationship is.” “It’s about celebrating Taiwan for what it is, a great democracy with a thriving economy, with respect for all of its people.” On China-US relations, she ruled that if the United States “did not speak out about human rights in China because of (our) commercial interests, we would then lose all moral authority to speak about human rights anywhere in the world”. With Reuters and AFP