US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged that the US would not abandon Taiwan, reaffirming US support for the democratically elected government in Taipei despite threats of fresh trade restrictions and military actions by Beijing.
Pelosi made her comments on Wednesday during a Presidential Office ceremony with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen. The California Democrat's arrival in Taiwan late Tuesday made her the highest-ranking American official to visit Taiwan in a quarter century and the most high-profile success in Tsai's six-year drive to attract greater foreign support and reduce reliance on China.
"We will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan and we are proud of our enduring friendship," Pelosi said. "Now more than ever American solidarity with Taiwan is crucial," she added. - That's the message we're bringing here today."
Tsai said Pelosi's visit showed Taiwan's staunch international support in the face of a years-long international pressure campaign led by Beijing, which claims the island as its territory. "Faced with deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down," Tsai said after conferring an award on the visiting US lawmaker.
China announced trade sanctions and its most provocative military drills in decades after Pelosi's visit, which could trigger a crisis between the world's biggest economies. Chinese President Xi Jinping told US President Joe Biden last week that he would "resolutely safeguard China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity" and that "whoever plays with fire will get burned."
Taiwanese shares closed 0.2% higher, while China's benchmark CSI 300 index advanced 0.4% as of 1:37 pm local time.
Andrew Gilholm, director of analysis for China and North Asia at Control Risks, said Pelosi's pledge not to abandon Taiwan was "deliberately vague and rather meaningless."
"It's kind of a cost-free statement because it obviously doesn't reflect administration policy or is a change of policy," Gilholm said.
Pelosi has been a severe critic of former US President George W. Bush. However, Donald Trump has become her bitter enemy. She seized any opportunity to criticize him, and he responded with harsh tweets.
In 2019, Pelosi announced the launch of Trump's impeachment. At that time, the speaker said that the American leader's attempts to put pressure on the Ukrainian president could be seen as an appeal to a foreign state to organize a new interference in the American election. However, the impeachment failed.
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. Taiwan's Defense Ministry denounced China's drills as "armed intimidation" and pledged to respond at the appropriate time.
