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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s White House warned China on Monday not to use House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s likely visit to Taiwan to escalate tensions with the United States or the island that considers itself an independent nation.
“There is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with long-standing U.S. policy into some sort of crisis or conflict or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait,” said John Kirby, the coordinator for strategic communications with the White House National Security Council, during a White House briefing room appearance. “And yet over the weekend, even before Speaker Pelosi arrived in the region, China conducted a live fire exercise.”
Kirby said Pelosi’s potential stop there during her ongoing Asia trip was no different from previous visits of other top congressional leaders and that China’s leaders need to understand the U.S. system of separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.
“Nothing about this potential visit — potential visit, which by the way, has precedent — would change the status quo, and the world should reject any PRC effort to use it to do so,” he said, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “We will not take the bait or engage in saber-rattling. At the same time, we will not be intimidated. We will keep operating in the seas and the skies of the Western Pacific as we have for decades.”
Kirby acknowledged that Pelosi is traveling aboard a plane ultimately under the control of Biden in his role as commander in chief. “The speaker’s flying aboard a military aircraft,” he said, in answer to a question about how the White House would know if and when Pelosi has arrived there. “So we’ll know.”
Biden himself suggested that his administration is not keen on a Pelosi trip to Taiwan at the moment, telling reporters last month: “The military thinks it’s not a good idea right now.”
Kirby said Monday that, notwithstanding that remark, Pelosi has the right to travel wherever she wants. “We don’t make the decision for the speaker. She makes her own decisions. We give her advice and counsel and context. She makes her own decisions. And the president, having long served in the Senate himself, he understands and respects the institutional prerogatives of members of Congress,” Kirby said.
The “One China” policy has been in place since its inception by President Richard Nixon in 1971 prior to his groundbreaking visit to the communist nation. The policy, which was codified in 1979, recognizes the government in Beijing as the legitimate authority of the entire country, while attempting to offer support for the autonomy of Taiwan, the island where anti-communist forces retreated to after the takeover by Mao Zedong in 1949.
Prior to Nixon, the United States had effectively recognized Taiwan as an independent country.
Under China’s current dictator, Xi Jinping, mainland China has become increasingly aggressive in claiming sovereignty over Taiwan with military shows of force as well as bellicose rhetoric.
According to China’s state news agency, Xi warned against Pelosi’s visit during a phone call with Biden last week. “If you play with fire you get burned. I hope the U.S. side can see this clearly,” Xi reportedly said.
