Pelosi will allegedly visit Taipei today, but her visit will be made “inconspicuous” – Taiwan media

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will allegedly visit Taiwan today, Tuesday, August 2, despite strict warnings from China.

This was reported by several Taiwanese media outlets, according to unnamed sources of which Nancy Pelosi will spend the night in Taipei.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

For its part, China warned that its military would never “sit idly by” if Pelosi visited Taiwan.

The Liberty Times reported that Pelosi was supposed to visit Taiwan's parliament on Wednesday morning before continuing her trip to Asia.

_{United Daily News, citing unnamed sources, reported that "relevant officials" have been ordered to receive Pelosi, who is expected to arrive in the capital Taipei on Tuesday evening and spend the night there. Pelosi is supposed to land at Songshan Airport in Taipei around 22:30 p.m. local time.}

Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had no comment on the reported Pelosi travel plans and did not provide any additional information to the media.

Yesterday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Pelosi's visit to Taiwan would be "gross interference in China's internal affairs" and warned it would lead to "very serious events and consequences."

"We would like to reiterate to the United States that China stands by, the People's Liberation Army will never sit idly by, and China will take strong retaliatory measures and decisive countermeasures to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity," Zhao said.

When asked what measures the PLA could take, Zhao replied: “If she dares to come, then we will wait and see.”

Note that the adventure with the announced visit of Democrat Pelosi, the third person in the US in line to become president in the event of an emergency and a long-time critic of China, coincided with a deterioration in relations between Washington and Beijing. Republican Newt Gingrich was the last speaker of the US House of Representatives to visit Taiwan in 1997.

_{Pelosi has long been a critic of the Chinese Communist Party. She met with dissidents advocating the overthrow of the regime in China and with the Dalai Lama. In 1991, Pelosi unfurled a black and white banner in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to commemorate the victims of the 1989 crackdown that read, "To those who died for democracy." In recent years, she has expressed support for the unrest in Hong Kong.}

China sees visits by U.S. officials to Taiwan as an encouraging signal to supporters of the island's independence. Washington does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but under US law it is required to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

Pelosi and her delegation met with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday to discuss issues including cross-Strait relations, the war in Ukraine and climate change, Singapore's Foreign Ministry said.

_{The South China Morning Post, meanwhile, does not rule out that Taiwan could give US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a high-level, but “low-profile” reception if she nevertheless ignores Beijing’s repeated warnings and makes an unannounced visit to the island.}

According to analysts interviewed by the publication, Taipei may be trying to make her trip low-profile to avoid further confrontation with Beijing.

Drew Thompson, a former U.S. Defense Department official, said Pelosi could call her trip to the island "unofficial."

“This is a compromise with Beijing's concerns, but far from capitulation,” he wrote on Twitter.

Thompson said he expected Pelosi to make an "informal stop in Taiwan after visiting Malaysia" - an outcome Beijing could live with.

However, it is indicated that analysts agree that if Pelosi does visit Taiwan, she is unlikely to stop here as a private citizen.

“She will come either as the sitting speaker of the House of Representatives or as a member of the US Congress,” said Wen-Ti Sun, a lecturer in international relations and China studies at the Australian National University.

Soong said Pelosi's visit to Taiwan would likely lead to worsening relations between the US and China in the short term.

“But after she steps down in November and a new speaker comes in, there will be an opportunity for China to reset,” he said, adding that “in that sense, the negative impact on US-China relations will be short-lived and will diminish as the her term of office."

Kwei-Bo Huang, a diplomacy professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei, said that while Pelosi is unlikely to come as a private citizen, there is a possibility that she could travel to Taiwan as a transit stop without officially entering the island, staying at the airport for several hours to meet with Taiwanese President Tsai.

Max Lo, Taipei-based executive director of the Taiwan International Society for Strategic Studies, said Taiwan is expected to view the visit with great caution, although it will view the trip as official rather than unofficial.

Tsai's government has remained tight-lipped about the possible visit. On Monday, Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang said the island welcomes visits from foreign visitors and will make appropriate travel arrangements.

“In terms of their respective visit schedules, we respect their decision and planning,” he said.

Meanwhile, as reported by Sleek Gist, Taiwan has put its army on “high alert.” Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense has canceled furloughs for some officers and soldiers and mobilized the country's air defense forces to "prepare for war" as concerns mount over a possible visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island.