By The FirstAccording to a report from CNN, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will visit Taiwan despite threats from the Chinese media and President Xi Jinping. Pelosi will be the first Speaker to visit Taiwan in 25 years.
She is expected to stay overnight.
From CNN:
The issue of Taiwan — a self-governing island that China claims as a part of its territory — remains one of the most contentious. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping discussed it at length in a two-hour-and-17-minute phone call on Thursday, as tensions mounted between Washington and Beijing.
“The question of Taiwan is the most sensitive, important core issue in China-US relations,” said Chinese Ambassador to the US Qin Gang at the Aspen Security Forum in July. Biden said last month that the US military opposed Pelosi visiting Taiwan, though since then has refused to elaborate on the warnings. The White House has said it is up to the House speaker where she travels, and that they have little say in her decision.
Still, administration officials have worked over the past weeks to spell out the risks of a visit to Taiwan in meetings with Pelosi and her team. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently said he’d discussed a visit to Asia with Pelosi.
The administration takes extra care for Pelosi’s security when she travels overseas because she is in the presidential line of succession.
