Will he go or not go in the end Taiwan; Left unanswered until last night, the question eclipsed her Asian tour. Nancy Pelosi which started from the first station Singaporeand while the Chinese leadership warned her Washington with “very serious consequences” if the President of the House of Representatives finally confirms the rumors that they want her to visit the island, which Beijing considers it a breakaway province of China.

Pelosi’s tour kicked off yesterday with her meeting with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who voiced his country’s concerns about the possibility of a Sino-US split in the Taiwan Strait as, according to an official statement, “he stressed the importance of stability in US-China relations for regional peace and security”. A new round of tension in Sino-US relations began on July 18, when a Financial Times report first suggested that the Democratic House Speaker’s tour would include a visit to Taiwan.

On Sunday, Pelosi’s office announced her tour schedule at Point Five, saying she would visit Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, without mentioning Taiwan. However, yesterday CNN and several media outlets in Taipei, citing officials from the two countries, reported that a US official would spend the night on the island on Tuesday and that she would visit the local parliament tomorrow. A little earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Liqian warned that Pelosi’s possible visit to Taiwan would be a “gross violation of China’s internal affairs,” causing “very serious developments and consequences,” given that US President Congress is the number three US government agency. “The People’s Liberation Army of China will not sit idly by, and China will give strong responses and take strong countermeasures to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Chinese official said. Asked what steps the Chinese military could take, he replied, “If they dare to go, let’s wait and see.”

Last Wednesday, US President Joe Biden appeared to distance himself from Pelosi’s legendary initiative, telling reporters that the US military “doesn’t think it’s a good idea at this time” to visit Taiwan. The next day, he had a long and very tense phone call with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, who warned that “those who play with fire will be burned by fire,” even though the US President tried to convince him that that his country’s policy towards Taiwan matter has not changed. The United States does not recognize the 23-million-strong island as a state and does not maintain official diplomatic relations with it, although it strengthens it militarily and opposes any attempt to change the status quo by force.

The tension is also from joint US military high schools with Indonesia.

“It’s her right”

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said yesterday that Nancy Pelosi, like any US congressman, has the right to visit Taiwan and that if it does, it will not change the status quo in the region. For his part, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he did not know if Pelosi intended to visit the island and urged Beijing to “behave responsibly” if the visit does eventually take place. The last speaker of the US House of Representatives to visit Taiwan was Republican Newt Gingrich in 1997, after a period of very serious tensions in the region.

On her Asian tour, Nancy Pelosi is accompanied by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks and members of the House Armed Services and Intelligence Committees. The tension in the atmosphere has come to the strengthening of the joint military universities of the United States and Indonesia, which started yesterday and will last for two weeks.

show of strength

As China celebrated the 95th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army yesterday, the anniversary was used to demonstrate force against the US on the occasion of Pelosi’s tour. State media abounded with videos of new Chinese military weapons such as DF-17 hypersonic missiles, Type 075 amphibious warships and Z-20 helicopters, weapons that will play an important role in landings in Taiwan. The battle cries reached their climax in the pages of newspapers echoing the Chinese leadership. Last Saturday, a Global Times columnist wrote that “military planes must be intercepted by all means” of Pelosi’s possible flight to Taiwan, “and if those methods don’t work, I think it would be appropriate to shoot down the plane.” Yesterday, the same newspaper warned that the Chinese military would respond strongly to any attempt by “separatist and reactionary forces,” reverting to Mao Zedong’s aphorism that China’s enemies are “paper tigers.”