The board of the speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan, follows from the data of FlightRadar24 and RadarBox services. The speaker flew to the island despite Chinese threats to take action if she visits. The South China Morning Post newspaper, citing experts, argued that Pelosi could limit himself to a transit stay at the Taiwan airport to meet with the island's leadership. 10 minutes before the plane landed, Taiwanese television announced the introduction of a second level of combat readiness in the country.
The US Air Force special flight took off from Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, August 2, around 11:00 (Moscow time), a few hours later the plane headed towards the Philippines and Taiwan. More than 300,000 people watched the speaker's flight this time, and at some point the Flightradar website stopped opening.
The Pelosi delegation booked 48 rooms at the Grand Hyatt in Taipei. The fact that Pelosi will land at the Taipei airport on Tuesday around 22:00 local time (17:00 Moscow time) was reported by the Taiwanese TV channel Sanli. Before that, Pelosi visited Malaysia as part of an Asian tour.
Alert
Now both China and Taiwan have their fighters in the air, and the Taiwanese forces are on "alert." The Chinese aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong took to the sea amid a possible visit by Pelosi to Taiwan, China Times reported . The United States also deployed an aircraft carrier and ships to the Taiwan area, Nikkei Asia reported, citing US Naval Institute ship tracking data and flight tracking websites. 8 F15 fighters and 5 tanker planes have been lifted from the American base in Okinawa, writes NHK.
White House spokesman John Kirby said the day before that the position of the White House has not changed: the United States does not support Taiwan independence. According to him, the PRC has no reason to use the speaker's visit as a pretext for aggression, but in which case the responsibility will be on Beijing. Pelosi has yet to confirm any plans to travel to Taiwan, but Kirby stressed that she has the right to do so if she wants to.
On July 30, about 100,000 people followed online the plane on which Nancy Pelosi took off from the American base. On the same day, the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) conducted a live-fire exercise in Fujian province, 120 kilometers from Taiwan. Taiwan also reported on the exercises. It was assumed that Pelosi could visit Taiwan as part of an Asian tour, but the plane landed in Hawaii that day. On July 31, she flew towards Asia. In the event of a US speaker's visit to Taiwan, China threatened to take "strong measures," wrote the Financial Times.
American visits to Taiwan before Pelosi
On April 15, 2021, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen received an American delegation for an unofficial visit to Taiwan. According to the White House, the visit was initiated by US President Joe Biden, which was seen as a show of respect and commitment to Taiwan and Taiwanese democracy. China's foreign ministry said it was urging the US to "not play with fire" and immediately stop all forms of official exchanges with Taiwan. After the arrival of the delegation to Taiwan, the PRC resumed military exercises near the island on the same day.
In May 2022, US President Joe Biden said that the United States was ready to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. Then Biden was directly asked if the US would defend Taiwan by military means in the event of a Chinese invasion, although the Americans did not do so after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Biden responded, "Yes… that's a commitment we've made."
What is the conflict?
In 1949, the communist People's Republic of China (PRC) was proclaimed, while the power of the conservative political party Kuomintang was preserved only on the island of Taiwan (Republic of China). Beijing insists that Taiwan is an integral part of the PRC. The sovereignty of the Republic of China is recognized by 13 states with which Taiwan maintains official diplomatic relations. In most countries of the world there are representative offices of Taipei (the capital of Taiwan), unofficial offices are actually embassies.
In January 2021, after the start of the global "semiconductor crisis", Taiwan became the cause of another exchange of threats between China and the United States. It was announced that the United States was lifting all restrictions on contacts between American and Taiwanese officials, which had been in place for decades, and this, according to Beijing, violated the "one China" principle .
The Chinese authorities said that the United States was "meddling into China's internal affairs" and threatened to annex Taiwan militarily, despite its commitment to the idea of "peaceful reunification" with the island. Officials say Washington is colluding with Taipei to challenge Beijing and support forces at home that want the island to formally declare independence. This is how Beijing argues for the increased fleet exercises off the coast of the island. China also says that any attempts by Taiwan to gain official independence would mean war.