Pelosi To Meet Taiwan Leader As China Opens Military Drills

(Bloomberg) -- US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi became the highest-ranking American politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years, prompting China to announce economic retaliation and its most provocative military drills near the island in decades.

Pelosi was set to hold a joint news briefing with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen at 10:53 a.m. Wednesday in Taipei, after speaking with legislative representatives. The California Democrat said she had “come in peace for the region,” following comments upon her arrival Tuesday night that her visit “in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy” and that Washington opposes “unilateral efforts to change the status quo.”

“Our congressional delegation’s visit to Taiwan honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant democracy,” Pelosi said in a statement.

China condemned the visit and announced a series of economic and military responses, including banning sand exports to Taiwan and halting some fish and fruit imports from the island. The People’s Liberation Army said it would conduct “long-range live firing” nearby, as well as more drills encircling the island from Aug. 4. Early Wednesday, state broadcaster China Central Television said the country had launched joint navy and air force exercises around Taiwan.

The drills are the most significant show of force by China around Taiwan since at least 1995, when Beijing test-fired missiles into the sea near the island in response to Taiwan’s president, Lee Teng-hui, visiting the US. Back then, China also declared exclusion zones around target areas during the tests, disrupting shipping and air traffic.

“China will take all necessary measures to resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and all consequences must be born by the US and the Taiwan independence forces,” the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said in a statement after Pelosi landed. The ministry summoned US Ambassador Nicholas Burns to protest the visit.

Taiwan faced cyberattacks late Tuesday, with the presidential office saying it suffered a 20-minute barrage in the early evening hours that was 200 times worse than usual. The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry’s website also appeared to face periodic disruptions.

Taiwan shares were down 0.1% as of 10:00 a.m. local time, extending losses into a third day. China’s benchmark CSI 300 Index rose as much as 1.1%, reversing some of Tuesday’s losses.

John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, said at a White House briefing that there’s no reason “for Beijing to turn this trip, which is consistent with long-standing US policy, into some sort of crisis or use it as a pretext to increase aggressiveness and military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait, now or beyond” Pelosi’s visit. 

China, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory, had vowed an unspecified military response ahead of Pelosi’s travel, which risks sparking a crisis between the world’s biggest economies. President Xi Jinping told President Joe Biden last week he would “resolutely safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity” and that “whoever plays with fire will get burned.”

“We are going to make sure that she has a safe and secure visit,” Kirby said on CNN. “We will not be intimidated or deterred from all of our other security commitments in the region because of the Chinese rhetoric or even some of their actions.”

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that the island’s military was prepared to send “appropriate armed forces according to the threat,” adding that it was “determined, confident and capable of ensuring national security.”

Pelosi is the highest-ranking American politician to visit Taiwan since then-House speaker Newt Gingrich did so in 1997. That came after the last major crisis in the Taiwan Strait, when China lobbed missiles into the sea near ports and then-President Bill Clinton sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to the area.

Pelosi will meet with Tsai at 10:30 a.m. and hold a press conference shortly after, according to the presidential office. She will also meet with Mark Liu, chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the Washington Post reported, as well as democracy activists.

The previously unannounced stop in Taiwan comes after Pelosi led a congressional delegation to Singapore and Malaysia. They will head next to South Korea and Japan -- two staunch US allies.

While the White House has sought to dial back rising tensions with China, emphasizing that Congress is an independent branch of government, Beijing has rejected that argument. On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying slammed the “provocative” visit and said any countermeasures from Beijing would be “justified.” Still, she left the door open for a possible in-person summit between Biden and Xi later this year.

Taiwan remains the most sensitive issue between the US and China, with the potential to one day spark a military conflict. Biden said in May that Washington would intervene to defend Taiwan in any attack from China, although the White House later clarified he meant the US would provide weapons, in accordance with existing agreements.

Chinese media outlets including the Communist Party’s Global Times have suggested the People’s Liberation Army would respond aggressively to a Pelosi trip, possibly by sending military aircraft over the island.

Under an agreement reached in 1978 to normalize relations between China and the US, Washington agreed to recognize only Beijing as the seat of China’s government, while acknowledging -- but not endorsing -- the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China. The US has insisted that any unification between the island and mainland must be peaceful, and supplied Taiwan with advanced weaponry while remaining deliberately ambiguous about whether US forces would help defend against a Chinese attack.

“We’re going to see another three or four days of significant tensions as the People’s Liberation Army does a series of live-fire drills exercises. The United States will move some military hardware into the region,” Jude Blanchette of the Center for Strategic & International Studies, told Bloomberg Television. 

“So this is going to feel tense,” he added. “I think what this really signals, though, is that the bilateral relationship has -- unfortunately -- moved into a much more contentious period where it’s beyond trade now.”

(Updates with Pelosi comments in second paragraph.)

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