China warns US over Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan

China warns the US that it is prepared to take serious measures if house Speaker Nancy ­Pelosi presses ahead with a planned trip to Taiwan.

Speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi at the US Capitol on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

China has warned the US that it is prepared to take serious measures if house Speaker Nancy ­Pelosi presses ahead with a planned trip to Taiwan next month.

President Joe Biden was to talk to Chinese leader Xi Jinping overnight on Thursday amid speculation that China could resort to military force to foil Ms Pelosi’s plans, either by physically blocking the arrival of her aircraft or by staging missile or other aggressive defence exercises that would prevent it from landing.

“If the US insists on going its own way and challenging China’s bottom line, it will surely be met with forceful responses,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said.

“All ensuing consequences shall be borne by the US.”

Asked on Wednesday about US military plans to protect Ms Pelosi, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said: “If there’s a decision made that Speaker Pelosi or anyone else is going to travel and they asked for military support, we will do what is necessary to ensure a safe conduct of their visit. And I’ll just leave it at that.”

China insists that Taiwan, which has its own democratically elected government, is its sovereign territory and is determined to reunify the island, by force if necessary.

Ms Pelosi would be the highest-ranking elected US official to visit Taiwan since 1997, when ­Republican house speaker Newt Gingrich travelled there

Throughout her career Ms ­Pelosi has insisted Taiwan has the right to choose its own course.

A planned trip in April was postponed after she contracted Covid-19. No dates have been ­announced but she is believed to want to go in August.

Last week Mr Biden said the Pentagon was convinced her trip was “not a good idea right now”.

The US President does not want Ms Pelosi’s actions to derail discussions for a long-awaited face-to-face meeting with Mr Xi set for November.

As well as Taiwan, Thursday’s phone call with Mr Xi was expected to cover North Korea’s nuclear program, Beijing’s close ties to Russia, efforts to revive the international Iran nuclear deal, and the Biden administration’s review of tariffs imposed on China by the Trump administration.

Taiwan was a central topic during the leaders’ previous phone call in March, three weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. China has refused to criticise Russia’s move and has blamed the US and NATO for provoking ­Moscow.

Meanwhile, Taiwan is carrying out a week of civil defence and military drills that were scheduled before the Pelosi controversy but are intended to send the message that it is ready to defend itself against Chinese aggression.

Soldiers practised defensive responses to an amphibious ­assault close to Taipei, the capital, with President Tsai Ing-wen dressed in military uniform, ­observing military exercises from a naval ship.

The conversation between Mr Biden and Mr Xi will be their fifth and will involve discussions of “everything from the tensions over Taiwan to the war in Ukraine, as well as how we better manage competition between our two nations, certainly in the economic sphere”, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

“This is a call that has been scheduled for a long time and there’s already a pretty robust agenda of things for these two leaders to talk about,” he said.

The Times