China says it will take ‘strong action’ if Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan

Beijing, Jul 19 (EFE).- China said Tuesday it would respond with “strong measures” if United States House of Representatives President Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan, at which US media had hinted.

The Chinese government called Tuesday on the US not to organize Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and urged Washington to “stop official exchanges” with the island.

“China firmly opposes any form of official exchange between the United States and Taiwan,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said at the daily press conference.

Zhao was responding to reports of an August trip by Pelosi to Taiwan, adding that, if the visit goes ahead, “it will seriously violate the ‘one China’ principle” in addition to sending “wrong signals to the separatists” in Taiwan, whose sovereignty Beijing claims.

The spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said his country “would take resolute and energetic measures” to defend its sovereignty and added that Washington “would be entirely responsible for the resulting consequences.”

If the trip takes place, it would be the first visit by a US House Speaker to Taiwan since 1997, when Newt Gingrich visited the island.

Pelosi and her team have neither confirmed nor denied the visit.

Taiwan is one of the main sources of conflict between China and the US, mainly because Washington is Taiwan’s main arms supplier and would be its greatest military ally in the event of a war with China.

China, which claims sovereignty over the island, has considered Taiwan a rogue province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communists. EFE

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