Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Nancy Pelosi , the speaker of the U.S. House of Representati...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, wants to travel to Taiwan next month amid tensions with China, citing six people with knowledge of the situation.
According to the newspaper, Pelosi and her team will also go to Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore in addition to spending time in Hawaii at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command's headquarters.
An inquiry for comment from Reuters was not immediately answered by her office or the US State Department. According to Taiwan's Foreign Ministry, "no relevant information" has been received on any visit.
Following a COVID-19 positive test, the Democratic leader's trip to Taiwan was postponed from April. China asserted at the time that such a visit would negatively impact Chinese-American relations.
Taiwan is under increasing pressure from China, which sees the island's democratic government as its own. Beijing and Washington's relationship is constantly strained by this issue.
However, the continuous assistance from the Biden administration, which has frequently referred to its "rock-solid" commitment to the island, has given Taiwan hope.
When Taiwan Vice President William Lai returned from a trip to the US and Honduras in January, Pelosi, a longtime opponent of China, met with him online.
According to three persons familiar with the issue cited by the Financial Times, the White House had expressed worry about the trip.
According to two sources cited by the newspaper, there were disagreements inside the U.S. government on Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
According to the report, some officials felt that going in April, right after Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, was simpler to justify.
This month, China provocatively dispatched fighters over the Taiwan Strait, according to Taiwan. U.S. Senator Rick Scott, a prominent Republican and member of the Senate's Armed Services Committee, was in Taipei at the time of the event.
The announcement of Pelosi's August travel came after China requested on Monday that the United States immediately halt any plans to sell Taiwan military technical support valued at an estimated $108 million.
