China bans biscuits, and bellows as Pelosi visits Taiwan

Beijing bans more than 100 Taiwanese food companies as it responds to Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit.

Nancy Pelosi with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday. Picture: AFP.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was scheduled to arrive in Taiwan on Tuesday evening before meeting President Tsai Ing-wen in a historic display of support for the self-governed democracy of 24 million made in defiance of weeks of rising threats from Beijing.

Ms Pelosi — who will be the highest ranking US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years — was expected to arrive at Taipei’s Songshan Airport at 10:20pm (8:20pm AEST). She was scheduled to met with Ms Tsai on Wednesday morning, according to sources in Taipei.

Beijing warned of “grave consequences” if the trip went ahead.

“The People’s Liberation Army of China will never sit idly by,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.

Hours later, China’s customs officials announced that imports from more than 100 Taiwanese food companies had been suspended, including pineapple cakes and Taiwan bear biscuits.

Taiwan’s government said it would not be cowed by China’s trade coercion.

“We will not be intimated by [the] PRC’s weaponisation of trade,” said Wang Ting-yu, a senior member of President Tsai’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

The biscuit black-listing came as Chinese party state media appeared to signal China’s military countermeasures would be limited as it claimed Beijing’s threats had succeeded.

“Pelosi would never be as stealthy as she is now if not for fear of the [People’s Liberation Army],” said the Global Times in its lead Tuesday editorial.

“Instead, she would probably strut there and it is conceivable that the DPP authorities and Taiwan secessionists would also act more recklessly,” said the bellicose party state masthead.

Speaking hours before Ms Pelosi was scheduled to arrive in Taipei, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he expected China to “act responsibly”.

“If the speaker does decide to visit and China tries to create some kind of crisis or otherwise escalate tensions, that would be entirely on Beijing,” Blinken said.

Some analysts in Washington had warned the trip could spark a military crisis, although most believe a major conflict is extremely unlikely.

Members of the Biden administration had tried to get Ms Pelosi to consider delaying the trip, which comes months before Xi Jinping is set to secure a precedent breaking third, five year term as China’s leader.

President Joe Biden did not speak directly about the trip in last week’s call with President Xi, but he did emphasise the separation of powers in the US, according to a White House spokesman.

On that more than two hour exchange, Mr Xi said America’s Taiwan policy must be informed by “the firm will of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people”.

“The public opinion cannot be defied. Those who play with fire will perish by it,” China’s leader warned.

Xi’s administration ended all contact with Taipei after President Tsai’s election in 2016, dismaying many in Washington. Concerns were further raised by Beijing’s political crackdown on Hong Kong in 2020.

Kharis Templeman, an expert on Taiwan at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, said Beijing had thoroughly misread US politics.

Beijing has responded to all US official visits and arm sale deals to Taiwan with the same “ritualistic condemnations”, Mr Templeman said.

“They have a credibility problem,” he added, noting that many in the US now discounted Beijing’s protests.

The Biden administration on Monday reiterated that a visit by Ms Pelosi did not break precedent and said the US’s “One China” policy had not changed.

China’s military have conducted live-fire exercises in the South China Sea and off the coast of the mainland opposite Taiwan in recent days.

A White House spokesman detailed the actions the US expected Beijing may take, including staged military exercises, firing missiles into the Taiwan Strait and sending aircraft and naval vessels into areas close to Taiwan.

In anticipation, the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan has moved to the Philippines Sea with its accompanying ships and the amphibious assault ship the USS Tripoli.

Ms Pelosi began her trip to Asia on Monday in Singapore. On Tuesday she will travel to Malaysia. After visiting Taiwan, she will travel to South Korea and Japan.

Mr Biden did not speak to Ms Pelosi about the trip, but the President’s national security team briefed Ms Pelosi ahead of the trip.

Many Democrats expect the longtime leader to step down at the end of this year, so her time to travel as second in line to the presidency and leader of the House is likely ending.

“She’s a woman who uses every minute of her life to get stuff done,” said Daniel Weiss, Ms Pelosi’s former chief of staff.

Ms Pelosi visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv in May, the highest-ranking US official to do so.

She has often spoken out about human-rights violations in China and enraged Beijing by unfurling a protest banner in Tiananmen Square in 1991, two years after the Chinese military crushed pro-democracy demonstrations there.

In 2015, Beijing allowed her to visit Chinese-controlled Tibet, a rare concession, especially given her longstanding relationship with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader.

When House Speaker Newt Gingrich travelled to Taiwan in 1997, Beijing initially objected and threatened a response.

Mr Gingrich ended up making a high-profile visit to Beijing to meet with Chinese leaders before travelling to Taiwan.