Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is playing with fire

2022-08-06 03:47

On August5, 2022, Local media Observer carried an article authored by Her Excellency Madame Zhang Yanling, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to Antigua and Barbuda, titled “Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is playing with fire.The full text is as follows:


On 2 August, in disregard of China’s strong opposition and serious representations, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited China’s Taiwan region. This is a serious violation of the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiqués. It has a severe impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and seriously infringes upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It gravely undermines peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and sends a seriously wrong signal to the separatist forces for “Taiwan independence”. China firmly opposes and has made serious démarche and strong protest to the U.S..

The historical ins and outs of the Taiwan question are crystal clear, and so are the fact and status quo that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China. There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, and the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China.This is at the core of the one-China principle.

The one-China principle has become a universal consensus of the international community and a basic norm in international relations, on the basis of which 181 countries, including the United States, have established diplomatic relations with China.

In 1979, the U.S. made a clear commitment in the China-U.S. Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations — “The United States of America recognizes the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China. Within this context, the people of the United States will maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan.”During his phone call with President XI Jinping on 28 July 2022, the U.S. President Biden reiterated that the one-China policy of the US has not changed and will not change, and that the US does not support “Taiwan independence”.

However, action-wise, the U.S. has been backtracking. It has inserted into its characterization of the one-China policy the so-called “Taiwan Relations Act” and the “Six assurances”, which were unilaterally concocted and have never been recognized and have been firmly opposed to by China. The U.S. has also gone against its commitment of maintaining non-official ties with the Taiwan region. It has upgraded its level of contact with Taiwan and has steadily increased arms sales to Taiwan.On Speaker Pelosi’s visit, I would like to make the following points:

First, the U.S. Congress, as part of the U.S. Government, is obliged to follow the one-China policy of the U.S. Government and not engage in any official interactions with China’s Taiwan region. Speaker Pelosi is the incumbent leader of the U.S. Congress. Her visit to and activities in Taiwan, in whatever form and for whatever reason, is a major political provocation to upgrade U.S. official exchanges with Taiwan.

Secondly, Speaker Pelosi said that her visit to Taiwan honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s democracy. However, the issue of her visit is not about democracy, but China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. In this stunt, democracy has been reduced to nothing more than a pretext constantly used by the U.S.. It is the China-US relationship and the peace and stability in the region that are taking the toll. 

Third, the U.S. side claimed that there was a precedent of the U.S. House speaker visiting Taiwan and “China is escalating the situation”. It needs to be pointed out thatthe then Speaker Gingrich’s visit toTaiwan 25 years ago was in itself completely wrong. The Chinese side was firmly opposed to it from the start.The past mistakes cannot be used as an excuse to repeat them today. Speaking of tension, it is the provocation by the U.S. on the Taiwan question, which is the most important and sensitive matter in China-U.S. Relations, that constitutes the fundamental reason for the new round of tension and serious challenges the Taiwan Strait is facing.

No one should misestimate the unbending will of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people to resolutely safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China. Any countermeasure that has been taken and is to be taken by China in response to the US’s unscrupulous behavior would fall within China’s rights as an independent sovereign country. The perverse actions by the U.S. and separatist forces for "Taiwan independence" will not alter the international consensus on the one-China principle, nor the historical trend that Taiwan will return to the motherland.

39 years ago, Rt. Hon. Vere Cornwall Bird, the founding father of Antigua and Barbuda made the decision of establishing diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, which made Antigua and Barbuda the first country in the Eastern Caribbean region to do so. Since then, despite changes in the international landscape,China and Antigua and Barbuda have always been sincere and reliable partners to each other. Both sides have consistently adhered to the principle of respecting each other’s sovereigntyand territorial integrity, and jointly safeguarded the basic norms of international relations.

China is ready to work with Antigua and Barbuda in an joint effort to oppose interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries and reject actions that undermine their sovereignty and territorial integrity.